Dissent is, once again, the highest form of patriotism or at least it is according to CNN Inside Politics host John King. During his Tuesday show in discussing the war of words between President Trump and "the Squad," King compared their grievances against Trump and the country to the Boston Revolutionaries of 1773.
King's comments came after White House correspondent Abby Phillip declared that Trump's tweets and Lindsey Graham's Fox & Friends appearance where he said that, "We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel. They hate our own country" were a response to those who simply dared to question the country:
And they criticized America. I think Lindsey Graham said it yesterday to a reporter, that if you -- if you are wearing a MAGA hat and you support President Trump, all of this would be fine. But in this country I think a lot of people believe that the right of Americans is to criticize the country without being criticized by the government.
That is when King jumped in, "That's why they threw the tea in the Boston Harbor. It’s kind of the very beginning-- the very beginning of the American Experiment is that you have the right to complain. It is the very beginning of the experiment that you have the right to complain against authority and against power. Our president seems to forget the history." Speaking of forgetting history, one day there will be another Democratic president, but one should not bet on CNN declaring conservative opposition to be akin to the Boston Tea Party.
First of all, that's not what Graham said and everybody knows it. Secondly, simply criticizing the government does not make one patriotic. Was Ilhan Omar patriotic when, speaking of the Battle of Mogadishu, she lamented the “thousands of Somalis killed by the American forces that day” during a United Nations humanitarian mission in country she was able to escape from? How about her and Rashida Tlaib's anti-Semitism or was that just questioning the role of money in politics? Clearly they are all just like Sam Adams.
Here is a transcript of the July 16 show:
Inside Politics
CNN
12:05 PM ET
ABBY PHILLIP: It's a two-pronged fight for him. One, it's about consolidating his party -- consolidating his power in the Republican Party, making sure all Republicans know that in order to be comfortable in the Trump Republican Party, they must be willing to defend him in this particular case. He will not accept anything other than that. He's been actively praising Kevin McCarthy for his comments this morning. He is taking note, he is watching TV, he is paying attention to who's saying what on the Republican side, but he's also trying to completely rebrand and frankly rewrite history around these tweets, saying this was always about socialism and always about ideology when in fact his tweet absolutely had nothing to do with ideology. If had everything to do with assuming that these four individuals were not Americans because they did not look like Americans. In his view --
JONATHAN MARTIN: His view.PHILLIP: -- and they criticized America. I think Lindsey Graham said it yesterday to a reporter, that if you -- if you are wearing a MAGA hat and you support President Trump, all of this would be fine. But in this country I think a lot of people believe that the right of Americans is to criticize the country without being criticized by the government.
JOHN KING: That's why they threw the tea in the Boston Harbor. It’s kind of the very beginning-- the very beginning of the American Experiment is that you have the right to complain. It is the very beginning of the experiment that you have the right to complain against authority and against power. Our president seems to forget the history. Maybe that's something to do with the airports.
