Reacting to President Trump’s Friday afternoon decision to cave and reopen the government without border wall money, CNN Newsroom nonetheless eviscerated the President as if he had announced the government would be staying closed.
Instead, anchors and correspondents condemned Trump as “shameful” for having “single-handedly shut down the government” that caused “agony” and illustrated a White House not in touch “with reality.”
Host Brooke Baldwin led off with a brief commentary, again showing how she’s not a news anchor but instead a pundit (and a liberal one at that):
35 days. 35 days of federal workers rationing asthma medicine for their kids, sleeping in cars, driving Uber late night shifts just to make ends meet and this man is not getting a single penny for his wall in 35 days and people are applauding him. This man single handedly shut down the government. It is shameful. Dana Bash, I’m starting with you. I heard no explanation as to why he did this and why he accepted this deal, 35 days later. He still is not getting what he wants.
Chief political correspondent Dana Bash noted that “[t]here’s a four letter word to describe what we just saw and that's cave” because “[t]here's no other way to describe it.”
“The President caved after, as you said, more than 30 days, after all of the real, real world ramifications of what has gone on. He hasn't gotten a dime for his wall, but it's because things have gotten so bad obviously. We know that not just from common sense but from reporting that he realized he didn't have a choice, but to do exactly what Democrats had been asking him to do since day one,” she added.
Chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta went next and, over an hour after he dismissed the deal as a distraction from Roger Stone’s arrest, he condemned this reopening of the government.
“[T]his was a big cave. I think this is one of the biggest tactical defeats for the President that we've seen in his political life. He created this box canyon for himself. Nancy Pelosi let him walk right in to it and now he's trying desperately to see his way out of it after watching on television this morning the havoc that a government shutdown, a protracted government shutdown, can wreak on the nation's aviation system,” Acosta began.
After noting how the President appeared to ad-lib at times, Acosta moved to accosting (pun intended) the behavior of “the Vice President and Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser, cabinet officials, other top officials.”
Why? Well, Acosta revealed that they were “applauding as if this was some sort of victorious moment” and “celebration, that was just right out of Alice in Wonderland.”
Acosta continued his long-winded screed by making a Stranger Things reference and denouncing the Trump administration as the ones who can’t feel the pulse of the American people and aren’t in touch “with reality” (click “expand”):
To see the White House and people inside the White House applauding the President during one of the biggest tactical defeats, strategic defeats of his political career, to me, just felt like the upside down out of Stranger Things. It is bizarre to see something like that happening and they were looking jubilant before he even began his remarks. They were smiling and clapping and laughing and that sort of thing. It goes to the — this is something we see day in and day out over here at the White House. There are just people here who are not dealing with reality. The reality on the outside world is that during a 35 day shutdown people are suffering, they are crying, they're on the news talking about how they can't pay their bills and buy their insulin and over at the White House, they're smiling and clapping and congratulating themselves for a shutdown that just caused a great deal of agony across the country and I — it was striking near the beginning of the President’s remarks when he made this claim that there are government employees who have been getting through this just fine....That just suggests that....when he looks outside the window of the Oval Office, he's not looking at the real world and so that is why if folks are wondering at home, could we be here in the exact same place three weeks from now, I think that's probably not a bad bet to make.
To see the relevant transcript from January 25's CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, click “expand.”
CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin
January 25, 2019
2:35 p.m. Eastern
BROOKE BALDWIN: 35 days. 35 days of federal workers rationing asthma medicine for their kids, sleeping in cars, driving Uber late night shifts just to make ends meet and this man is not getting a single penny for his wall in 35 days and people are applauding him. This man single-handedly shut down the government. It is shameful. Dana Bash, I’m starting with you. I heard no explanation as to why he did this and why he accepted this deal, 35 days later. He still is not getting what he wants.
DANA BASH: There's a four letter word to describe what we just saw and that's cave. There's no other way to describe it. The President caved after, as you said, more than 30 days, after all of the real, real world ramifications of what has gone on. He hasn't gotten a dime for his wall, but it's because things have gotten so bad obviously. We know that not just from common sense but from reporting that he realized he didn't have a choice, but to do exactly what Democrats had been asking him to do since day one. “You want to have a negotiation, Mr. President, great, we'll have a negotiation, but let's reopen the government first and then have the negotiation.” That is what's happening now. It is exactly what was asked of him by Democrats and some Republicans to be fair back when the shutdown began. The one thing I will say that he did say at the very beginning before he went on with his messaging opportunity taking advantage of the fact that all of the networks were taking this — this event live, he did hold out the potential for doing something else and I've been told by a couple of Republican sources that that is the national — the executive action, perhaps the national emergency, something else that he could do with his own power. Previously, it could be and would be challenged in the courts, but my guess is as his going to see the coverage that is — there's no other way to describe it other than a cave, he might be itching to do something that shows that he at least is doing something within his power.
BALDWIN: Jim Acosta is our chief White House correspondent. Jim Acosta, what did you think?
JIM ACOSTA: Yeah, Brooke. I mean, this was a big cave. I think this is one of the biggest tactical defeats for the President that we've seen in his political life. He created this box canyon for himself. Nancy Pelosi let him walk right in to it and now he's trying desperately to see his way out of it after watching on television this morning the havoc that a government shutdown, a protracted government shutdown, can wreak on the nation's aviation system, with all those flights being delayed and so forth in the northeast corridor. I think that was weighing very heavily on what was happening over here at the White House. But as you heard, at the very end of the President's comments there, he said that he is fully capable and prepared to shutdown this government again if, by February 15th, we don't see some sort of agreement to get that wall down on the border with Mexico. Now, Brooke, I will tell you standing here in the Rose Garden, this was pretty remarkable to watch because as the President was moving through those prepared remarks, there were moments in which and I suppose we know this because we've been following this man for some time now, he can't help himself and was going off of those prepared remarks, going off of that teleprompter and, at times, ad-libbing about what he sees as a crisis on the border, talking about women having their mouths duct taped, at one point suggesting that if a wall is built on the southern border with Mexico that the amount of drugs coming in would be cut as he said by a number that people don't really have a firm understanding of and so the President was making some of these claims that he often makes when he talks about immigration, when he talks about the border in unscripted settings and he was injecting some of those remarks, ad-libbing those remarks as he was reading off the teleprompter here. So I think that shows you where the President's head is right now. He just can't give up on this wall. He just can't quit this wall and I think that is why you're going to see, very possibly the next three weeks, this country right back where we have been for the last 35 days which is perhaps in the middle of a government shutdown because the President can't seem to get his way on the wall. Now, the other thing that was interesting to watch being here in the Rose Garden is off on the sidelines underneath the colonnade, over here leading into the West Wing, you could see the Vice President and Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser, cabinet officials, other top officials applauding as if this was some sort of victorious moment —
BALDWIN: Celebration, yeah.
ACOSTA: — yeah — celebration, that was just right out of Alice in Wonderland.
BALDWIN: Totally.
ACOSTA: To see the White House and people inside the White House applauding the President during one of the biggest tactical defeats, strategic defeats of his political career, to me, just felt like the upside down out of Stranger Things. It is bizarre to see something like that happening and they were looking jubilant before he even began his remarks. They were smiling and clapping and laughing and that sort of thing. It goes to the — this is something we see day in and day out over here at the White House. There are just people here who are not dealing with reality. The reality on the outside world is that during a 35 day shutdown people are suffering, they are crying, they're on the news talking about how they can't pay their bills and buy their insulin and over at the White House, they're smiling and clapping and congratulating themselves for a shutdown that just caused a great deal of agony across the country and I — it was striking near the beginning of the President’s remarks when he made this claim that there are government employees who have been getting through this just fine. He suggested that government employees are getting through this just fine. That just suggests that he's — he’s not looking at the real — when he looks outside the window of the Oval Office, he's not looking at the real world and so that is why if folks are wondering at home, could we be here in the exact same place three weeks from now, I think that's probably not a bad bet to make. This President is hellbent on getting a wall and my sense of it is he'll sign the C.R. to get the government open again but we might be right back in the same place again in three weeks from now, Brooke.
BALDWIN: He can't quit the wall so says Jim Acosta. Jim in the Rose Garden. Jim, thank you. You know, it is this upside down world. David Chalian, but how do all these federal workers get right side up? I mean, obviously, we've been pointing out this is a deal he could have had 35 days ago like you could have cut and copied the speech that we just heard and posted it back to December 22nd.
