On Friday's CNN Tonight, host Don Lemon wondered why Joe Biden is naive to believe that he can work with those mean Republicans in the Senate who forced President Obama to issue many executive orders during his presidency.
On the same day Nancy Pelosi admitted she's only now ready to accept a compromise on a COVID relief package because Biden won, Lemon observed:
[B]ecause it's a different Senate I think than when Joe Biden was there, it’s a different Senate then even when he was Vice President okay, and when he was Vice President the Senate, not the same people, but many of the same people, refused to work with him, right? Said that his boss or the President wasn't even born in the country, so they were going to make him a one-term president, right?"
He also wondered how Biden could work with anyone who has concerns about how President Trump was treated during his transition, "And then over the last four years, still continue to call what they did was wrong, they spied on them and they tapped him, whatever. And then now, refusing to say that he is the President-Elect of the United States."
After adding the fact that Republicans refuse to acknowledge that he will be the next president, Lemon asked Kirsten Powers, "What makes him think this Senate is going to work with him? It would be great, I think it will be great. He has to reach out. But is this the reality? Is that ever going to happen?"
Powers' response was to claim that he does not have a choice and that he has relationships with certain senators to "to change the way that people think about things."
Lemon then observed that Biden might alienate his left-wing base, "That is what he ran on. I'm in the sure that is what 7 million people voted for because we all remember what happened Obama and Obama lost support. The core of the party was upset because they said, Mark [McKinnon], 'they're never going to work with you.'"
It was then that Lemon tried to re-write history by portraying Obama as someone who "continually tried to work with Republicans and they kept stonewalling him." This alleged stonewalling forced Obama to issue his Constitutionally problematic executive orders: "[T]hat is when he had to do executive orders, because they wouldn't work with him. What makes Joe Biden think things will be different?"
Lemon's take on Obama's executive orders will surely be a recurring them for the media in the coming years. When Trump issued executive orders, he was acting like a king, but when Obama issued executive orders, and when Biden inevitably does as well, that was because Republicans forced them to.
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Here is a transcript for the December 4 show:
CNN
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon
10:20 PM ET
DON LEMON: Okay, speaking of practical. Let's look at the evidence here, Kirsten, and stay on the subject, because it's a different Senate I think than when Joe Biden was there, it’s a different Senate then even when he was Vice President okay, and when he was Vice President the Senate, not the same people, but many of the same people, refused to work with him, right? Said that his boss or the President wasn't even born in the country, so they were going to make him a one-term president, right? Refuse to work with Obama. And then over the last four years, still continue to call what they did was wrong, they spied on them and they tapped him, whatever. And then now, refusing to say that he is the President-Elect of the United States. He beat Trump by more than 7 million votes, but people still don't believe it. What makes him think this Senate is going to work with him? It would be great, I think it will be great. He has to reach out. But is this the reality? Is that ever going to happen?
KIRSTEN POWERS: I think that if you're Joe Biden, what other choice do you have? You have to -- if you're sitting where he's sitting, his attitude is, I'm going to have to try to try to make this work. Up to this point, there haven't been many good faith efforts coming from Mitch McConnell or coming from the Republicans but because I have a long standing relationship with them, because I worked with them, maybe we can do something different. I don't know what else he can do. If he tries it and doesn't get anywhere with it then he may to have to start going in other directions which they’ll attack him for using executive orders and so on. I do think that I understand if you are Joe Biden, this is what you do and this is fundamentally who Joe Biden is and so what we have to see: is he really a man for his time, right? Is he a type of person who possibly could bring some type of bipartisanship in the country?
LEMON: Absolutely.
POWERS: And, so I think, if anyone an, it’s probably him and that he’s going to try to do that. And as the president of the United States, he has a bully pulpit and a lot of the job is to change the way things operate, to change the way that people think about things. That is what, I think, he is going to try to two.
LEMON: That is what he ran on. I'm in the sure that is what 7 million people voted for because we all remember what happened with Obama and Obama lost support. The core of the party was upset because they said, Mark, “they're never going to work with you.” He continually tried to work with Republicans and they kept stone walling him. And that is when he had to do executive orders, because they wouldn't work with him. What makes Joe Biden think things will be different?
