On Wednesday's New Day, during a discussion of Chris Christie's speech at the Republican National Convention and audience reaction, CNN panel members used words like "vitriolic" and "pretty ugly" to describe the GOP gathering. Co-anchor Chris Cuomo warned that Republicans are helping Hillary Clinton by "going too far," and also worked in a rationalization of his claim from Tuesday that Clinton did not send classified information by email "in any real way." And there was also some jabbing at "the conservative media" for allegedly spreading misinformation through "repetition.".
At 5:19 a.m. ET, after playing clips of Christie's speech attacking Clinton, with audience members chanting, "Lock her up!" co-host Alisyn Camerota bristled:
What they were saying, in case people couldn't hear it, was "Lock her up, lock her up." Is this the most vitriolic, vehement convention that you can remember?"
CNN political commentator Errol Louis went negative on Republicans as he began:
It was pretty angry out there and pretty ugly, you know. I mean, some of that was spontaneous. It's not as if Chris Christie was calling for that, but he did nothing to silence it. But people leapt to their feet. I remember at one point the California delegation, they were shaking their fists in unison at the podium, saying "Lock her up."
After complaining that Christie did not try to calm the crowd, he added:
He didn't even enunciate one legal violation that she was alleged to have committed. He was just saying she has done some things that we think didn't work, she's pursued some policies that we think are dangerous for the country. That's a valid conversation. The fact that a lot of people interpreted that as "she belongs in prison" is, I think-
Moments later, Cuomo chimed in:
They're doing her a favor, in a way. By blaming her for everything that has ever happened that is negative, they are making a classic blunder, to paraphrase The Princess Bride, one of the classic blunders in dealing with the Clintons is taking it too far.
He then worked in a defense of his claiming Clinton did not email classified information:
I had somebody last night, turned me around and say, "Why do you say she didn't send classified information?" I said, "Knowingly." I'm using shorthand. She would have been indicted had she knowingly sent classified information to an uncleared person." That triggers the "intent" portion of the statute. So, obviously, she didn't. I'm telling you, to a person, they look at you and say, "Yes, she did." Now, what you expose yourself to, Errol, is he's going to say it at some point, and she's going to say, "No, I didn't." And he's going to wind up being wrong. And then you wind up playing advantage too far.
On Tuesday's show, addressing right-leaning CNN political commentator Margaret Hoover, Cuomo had declared: "You’re banging on the email situation not because classified information got sent, because it didn't in any real way and we all know that, but it's about lying."
Returning to Wednesday's show, Louis responded to Cuomo by taking aim at the conservative media:
Well, that's right. I mean, here's, what happens in the world of conservative media -- conservative talk radio, in particular -- in the world of this convention, frankly. There's a sort of a factual base that's laid, and it doesn't have anything to do with what happened in the real world, but, through repetition over and over and over again, you get people doing something -- and that's actually where the Melania Trump issue gets to be really interesting because they are playing out on a much larger stage what goes on all the time in conservative circles. Which is, they decided this wasn't plagiarism and this was somehow Hillary Clinton's fault, as a matter of fact.
After Cuomo jumped in to crack, "Yes. That got blamed on her also. She wrote it evidently," Louis continued:
And that's it. And we can all look at the video. And they say, "You don't see what you're looking at," you know, "You're seeing it wrong." What this really means is that Hillary Clinton somehow went back in time and made, you know, Michelle Obama do this.
CNN political analyst David Gregory then brought up "sexism." Gregory:
And the sexism. You got to call out the sexism. I mean, Manaforte saying that any woman who gets close to Hillary, she's going to destroy, as a deflection point, was, I think, over the top.
