Newsmax TV host Steve Malzberg appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday to wrestle with host Brian Stelter about the CNN poll questions asking if Obama was born in America and is a Christian. Stelter began: “I'm curious to explore this strain within the conservative movement and frankly within conservative media at times.”
Stelter said “a significant minority of Republicans” say they don’t think Obama is Christian. Malzberg slammed back with CNN’s own poll, which showed (on page 32) that 15 percent of Democrats think Obama is Muslim:
STELTER: What do you think it represents when polls show that a significant minority of Republicans, I think 43 percent, according to one poll, say they don't believe that the president is Christian?
MALZBERG: Fifteen percent in your own CNN poll of Democrats thinks he's a Muslim. Almost a majority, about 48 percent, and in previous polls, it was over a majority, when you combine, think he's a Muslim or don't know. Right now, it's about 48 percent in your CNN poll. Are they all racists? Are they all fanatics? Are they all hate-mongers?
For eight years now, as when CNN sent correspondents to Jakarta to rebut the idea Obama attended Muslim “madrassas,” they have been hyper-sensitive about Obama’s faith...although they weren’t reporting in depth on Obama’s membership in Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s racially inflammatory, “God damn America” church while he was running for president.
Malzberg said Obama’s foreign policy gives off fumes of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, in Egypt and other Middle East countries.
MALZBERG: He says he's a Christian. That's good enough for me. He said -- and he's a citizen. Until somebody shows he's not, that's good enough for me. But when your policies both abroad and at home -- Look, he used a prayer breakfast in February to bring up the Crusades right after Muslim terror attacks, as if to say, hey, these Muslim terror attacks aren't so bad. Look what the evil Christians did. He's a very strange devout Christian by his actions and his policies. And I think that's fair to say.
STELTER: Isn't there enough to criticize about the president without invoking his religion, however?
MALZBERG: Who invoked his religion? Donald Trump -- listen, when Hillary Clinton was asked about this in 2008, she said, of course he's a Christian, of course, as far as I know. Now, doesn't that raise a whole bunch of doubt and leave it open- ended? Why isn't the media scrutinizing her and asking her now, because she's criticizing Trump?
Stelter insisted “every responsible journalist” should repeat “loudly and clearly” that Obama’s a native-born Christian.
STELTER: Doesn't every responsible journalist and every responsible opinion, um, analyst type have a responsibility to say, loudly and clearly, every time they talk about this, “The president was born in the U.S., The president is a Christian”?
MALZBERG: No, not every time. I mean –
STELTER: No? Because, otherwise, it sows doubts. It raises, right, these kinds of suspicions.
MALZBERG: Okay, well, Hillary referred to -- said that the Republican presidential candidates have a lot in common with terrorists. Does every journalist have a responsibility going forward to say --
STELTER: I think that should have gotten more coverage, by the way.
MALZBERG: – Ah! And so should Joe Biden have said -- back in '08, when he said the president was the first clean, articulate black person ever to run for president. He got a pass on that.
Bernie Sanders, I know it was 40 years ago, but he wrote a piece, an opinion piece, a story, a fantasy, if you will, that women liked to be raped. They think of being raped by three men at the same time when the’re having sex with their spouses. Why don't these things get the coverage? Why?
STELTER: Do you think there's any such thing as a false equivalency?
MALZBERG: I think there’s a double standard, a horrific double standard.
STELTER: Not a false equivalency when you’re bringing up 40-year-old comments about Bernie Sanders?
MALZBERG: Well, or Joe Biden's or Hillary's, which you admitted should have gotten more coverage.
STELTER: That was a recent story.
Stelter didn’t seem to remember The Washington Post digging up an alleged haircut/bullying incident from 1965 on Mitt Romney in 2012. No one dismissed that as archaic stuff in the liberal media. Stelter didn’t hear the sound of his Obama-coddling, that it “does damage” to America when you sow doubt about Obama’s background, and “delegitimize the president.” Can Stelter honestly say CNN never reported or said or allowed things that “delegitimized” President Bush?
STELTER: I think it does damage to our country, damage to the viewers at home when Trump sows doubt in this way, doesn't just explicitly answer the question. We saw other candidates this morning on Sunday morning shows saying, “Yes, the president is a Christian. Yes, he was born here.”
MALZBERG: Barack Obama in '010 told a Hispanic audience that you don't reward your enemies, meaning the Republicans. And it goes on. Barack Obama said if you're against the Iran deal, the Republicans who against the Iran deal, are like the hard-line Iranians and their crazies. Is that good? Does that sow good feelings throughout the country?
STELTER: I don't think it's the same as delegitimizing the president of the United States.
MALZBERG: But Trump didn't do it. This questioner did. And he addressed the second part of the questioner's question. Again, I'm not defending Donald Trump. I just think we're making a big deal here about nothing.
