So, to be clear, it’s fearmongering to talk about impeachment even though scores of lefties and their liberal media allies won’t stop talking about it? Got it, CNN.
On Thursday afternoon’s CNN Newsroom, fill-in host Ana Cabrera and CNN conservatarian S.E. Cupp ruled that President Trump and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are fearmongering by sounding the alarm about the President being impeached by Congress.
The brief exchange came after soundbites of both men warning not only about impeachment but claims made by Giuliani that “the American people would revolt” and by the President that the stock market would crash if he were impeached (likely by a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives).
“I first just want to get your take of what we heard from Giuliani and President Trump talking about impeachment. The President forced to address his own impeachment. I mean, it sounds like they're playing politics of fear right out of that playbook,” Cabrera opined, seemingly perturbed with Giuliani and Trump warning against something that’s chief on the agenda for Democrats.
Playing the faithful role of a CNN commentator, Cupp agreed but added that “Trump's description of impeachment is almost comically inane” because “[h]e seems to believe that the health of the markets, alone, would guarantee his job security and just — just ask Bill Clinton if having a robust economy and record growth and unemployment kept him in office.”
Clinton obviously stayed in office, but it’s clear what Cupp meant and didn’t intentionally claim that he was subsequently booted from office.
Cupp then continued with Cabrera’s notion that warning about impeachment is fearmongering even if it’s a good talking point:
But you're right. This is political jargon and frankly, it’s a good strategy. Rudy Giuliani, remember, is not playing legal counsel, per se, to the President. He’s playing political adviser and in sort of stoking these fears among the electorate that if Democrats win the House, they'll try to impeach the President, that's for turnout. That's a good message. That's a good fear for Rudy Giuliani and Trump to convey to Republicans “you better come out and vote to keep Republicans in House or this whole thing is, you know, going to end in revolt” as Giuliani said.
Cabrera replied before moving onto another topic: “The question is, will it be effective in turning out the base — turning out voters for Republicans?”
Along with lefty politicians like Maxine Waters calling for Trump’s impeachment, it’s been a part of the liberal media lexicon since Trump’s election. Earlier Thursday, the MRC’s Bill D’Agostino published a video supercut of CNN and MSNBC mentioning impeachment “an absurd 222 times in 18 hours” throughout their Wednesday programming.
To see the relevant transcript from August 23's CNN Newsroom, click “expand.”
CNN Newsroom
August 23, 2018
3:39 p.m. EasternANA CABRERA: Kaitlan, we're also hearing now from President's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, on talk of impeachment. What did he say?
KAITLAN COLLINS: That's right, Ana. We just heard the President's lead attorney representing him in the Russia probe on impeachment and, to give you a little background, this impeachment talk has accelerated since Michael Cohen, the President’s former attorney, implicated him in a crime earlier this week saying that he directed him to make to those payments to those two women who alleged that they had affairs with president Trump. And now Rudy Giuliani himself, is weighing in and here's what he had to say about all of this.
RUDY GIULIANI: Hardly. I think it's inevitable that he won't. President Trump is completely cleared. You have this Cohen guy, he doesn’t know anything about Russian collusion. Doesn't know anything about obstruction. He's a massive liar. If anything, it’s turned very much in the President's favor. [SCREEN WIPE] I think impeachment would be totally horrible. I mean, there's no reason. He didn't collude with the Russians. He didn't obstruct justice. Everything Cohen says has been disproved. You'd only impeach him for political reasons and the American people would revolt against that.
COLLINS: Rudy Giuliani there on a golf course in Scotland, wearing his trump hat. Rudy Giuliani has been out of the country when Paul Manafort verdict came down and Michael Cohen made his appearance in a New York courtroom. Something that has frustrated President Trump with his lead attorney being so far away, but you hear there. Rudy Giuliani predicting dire circumstances if President Trump would be impeached. And that’s something that his client, his number one client, also said during an interview saying that he believed if he would be impeached, that the stock markets would crash and that everyone would be poor. Ana?
CABRERA: Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thank you and I want to play the President said about the prospect of his own impeachment this morning on Fox. Listen.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [on FNC’s Fox & Friends, 08/23/18]: You know, I guess it's something like high crimes and all — I don't know how you can impeach somebody who's done a great job. I'll tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking, you see you would see numbers that you wouldn't believe in reverse.
CABRERA: Let me bring in S.E. Cupp, the host of S.E. Unfilitered, which has new home here on CNN on Saturday at 6pm Eastern. Welcome to the weekends, first of all.
S.E. CUPP: Thanks. It’ll be good to see you.
CABRERA: And welcome to this episode today here in the newsroom. Thank you for being with us.
CUPP: Yep.
CABRERA: I first just want to get your take of what we heard from Giuliani and President Trump talking about impeachment. The President forced to address his own impeachment.
CUPP: Yeah.
CABREA: I mean, it sounds like they're playing politics of fear right out of that playbook.
CUPP: Um, they are. A couple things, Trump's description of impeachment is almost comically inane. He seems to believe that the health of the markets, alone, would guarantee his job security and just — just ask Bill Clinton if having a robust economy and record growth and unemployment kept him in office. It didn't. But you're right. This is political jargon and frankly, it’s a good strategy. Rudy Giuliani, remember, is not playing legal counsel, per se, to the President. He’s playing political adviser and in sort of stoking these fears among the electorate that if Democrats win the House, they'll try to impeach the President, that's for turnout. That's a good message. That's a good fear for Rudy Giuliani and Trump to convey to Republicans “you better come out and vote to keep Republicans in House or this whole thing is, you know, going to end in revolt” as Giuliani said.
CABRERA: The question is, will it be effective in turning out the base — turning out voters for Republicans?
CUPP: Yeah.
