In light of President Trump’s weekend of tweeting about seemingly everything (and no further tweets about New Zealand since Friday afternoon), CNN returned to one of its favorite storylines with an assist from George Conway, which is that the President isn’t a stable person and might have a mental illness that makes him unworthy of the presidency.
CNN Right Now was one such show and featured host Brianna Keilar and chief White House correspondent and armchair psychiatrist Jim Acosta. Keilar seemed exasperated at the top of the show that “two people of the people closest to President Trump inside the West Wing have to defend his mental fitness and assure the public that he is not a white supremacist.”
Continuing this manufactured storyline CNN has been desperate to advance, Keilar added in her tee up to Acosta: “[W]hat does it say that the top aides are defending the President's mental fitness and denying that he's a white supremacist? These are pretty extraordinary defenses to be out there with.”
For CNN, seemingly everything Trump does or says is deemed “extraordinary” or “not normal” or “unprecedented.” Here’s a question for Jeffrey Zucker: If everything is that way, what isn’t? Presumably, the answer involves liberals controlling government and a post-Trump era in which the media and the White House are joined at the hip.
Acosta began his Steve Schmidt-like rambling response by breathlessly hyping that “in any other administration, you just wouldn't hear that kind of thing being said by a chief of staff” that the President isn’t a white supremacist
He then brought in the mental illness case thanks to Mr. Conway (click “expand”):
But earlier this morning, things got even more surreal. You saw the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway talking to reporters....and, you know, she was essentially fielding questions about the President's tweets from over the weekend....Perhaps the most surreal of all the moments this morning, Brianna, was when Kellyanne Conway, as you just played there a few moments ago, addressed some of these tweets coming from her husband, George Conway, who’s prominent attorney here in D.C. joined the administration but decided not to, tweeting about what he believes to be the President's personality disorders. I don't believe he is a psychiatrist, but he’s sharing his opinion that the President’s behavior, I guess, points to some kind unstablity he feels that — that we see here on a daily basis....And you heard Kellyanne Conway talking to reporters, saying she doesn't share those concerns and that she was trying to get her kids off to school.
But definitely, Brianna. I mean, it is just another day at the office for us over here at the White House in terms of trying to address these sorts of questions and seeing the, you know, senior officials like Kellyanne Conway and Mick Mulvaney have to go to these lengths to defend the President's behavior, it is — it is quite something. I will tell you when I talked to White House officials privately, they will tell you, no, they don't believer the President is insane, they believe he's more crazy like a fox and that he sends out a lot of these tweets in an attempt to really dominate the news cycle, drive the narrative[.]
Minutes after Acosta’s latest date with a camera, Keilar went to chief political analyst Gloria Borger and remarked that this is obviously “not where the aides wanted to be” in terms of “being asked questions about [white supremacy] and his mental fitness.”
Here’s portions of Borger’s response that, naturally, sounded identical to everything that had already been said:
I mean, it's kind of stunning that you have to have the acting white house chief of staff, or whatever his title is, go on television and say, the President is not a white supremacist...I don't know how many times I have to say that and — and also Kellyanne Conway this morning who, obviously her husband was tweeting about the president's mental illness — alleged had to sort of say, no, no, you know, the President is fine. He’s not. So, it's kind of stunning that it has come to this, that is — that is what we're talking about right now.
Are there conservative or non-liberal voices on CNN? Absolutely. The point is, however, that they’re few and far between. Political analyst Carl Bernstein laid this out last week at a press dinner in which he talked about how CNN is in the business of shaping narratives.
But what’s been clear about those narratives is that they’re manufactured to fit what CNN wants to spoonfeed to its liberal audience and poor souls at airports and doctor’s offices, which is one of fear and division. For all the talk on CNN about Fox News hurting America, perhaps Zucker and friends have sorted to the tactics of Saul Alinsky or Karl Marx by criticizing your opponents for being the very thing that you yourself have become.
With examples like this on a daily basis, it sure looks like that’s the case.
To see the relevant transcript from March 18's CNN Right Now, click “expand.”
CNN Right Now
March 18, 2019
1:00 p.m. EasternBRIANNA KEILAR: Underway right now: After a 24-hour tweet binge, two people of the people closest to President Trump inside the West Wing have to defend his mental fitness and assure the public that he is not a white supremacist.
(....)
1:02 p.m. Eastern
KEILAR: Chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta is joining us now. So Jim, what does it say that the top aides are defending the President's mental fitness and denying that he's a white supremacist? These are pretty extraordinary defenses to be out there with.
JIM ACOSTA: Absolutely, Brianna. I mean — I — I don't know what the President has been tweeting about over the weekend or the lengths that senior White House officials have to go to to defend those tweets and defend what the President has been saying and that’s what we’ve seen over the last 48 hours. We saw the Chief of Staff — the acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney on the Sunday talk shows defending the President, at one point, as you said, saying the president is not a white supremacist. I mean, in any other administration, you just wouldn't hear that kind of thing being said by a chief of staff.
But earlier this morning, things got even more surreal. You saw the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway talking to reporters after she appeared on one of the other networks, and, you know, she was essentially fielding questions about the President's tweets from over the weekend. Dozens of tweets addressing all sorts of grievances, like you said, from Saturday Night Live to his old nemesis — the late Senator John McCain. At one point, Kellyanne talked about how she honors Senator McCain’s service to the U.S. Obviously, that is something that the President has not really done and has exactly the done the opposite of that. And so, you know, this is something that we heard all morning long.
Perhaps the most surreal of all the moments this morning, Brianna, was when Kellyanne Conway, as you just played there a few moments ago, addressed some of these tweets coming from her husband, George Conway, who’s prominent attorney here in D.C. joined the administration but decided not to, tweeting about what he believes to be the President's personality disorders. I don't believe he is a psychiatrist, but he’s sharing his opinion that the President’s behavior, I guess, points to some kind unstablity he feels that — that we see here on a daily basis on, you know, on the White House North Lawn and inside the White House, in the Oval Office and so on when the President talks about various things and addresses his various grievances.
And you heard Kellyanne Conway talking to reporters, saying she doesn't share those concerns and that she was trying to get her kids off to school. But definitely, Brianna. I mean, it is just another day at the office for us over here at the White House in terms of trying to address these sorts of questions and seeing the, you know, senior officials like Kellyanne Conway and Mick Mulvaney have to go to these lengths to defend the President's behavior, it is — it is quite something.
I will tell you when I talked to White House officials privately, they will tell you, no, they don't believer the President is insane, they believe he's more crazy like a fox and that he sends out a lot of these tweets in an attempt to really dominate the news cycle, drive the narrative, and one thing that we saw over the weekend is there was a lot more discussion about General Motors, the way the president has responded to the terror attack in New Zealand, and not as much about the Russia investigation and when you talk to White House officials, people who are close to the President privately, some of this is by design. He wants those tweets out there. He wants those distractions out there so we're spending our time talking about those sorts of things and not the thing that really strikes fear in this administration, and that's the Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Brianna?
KEILAR: Alright, Jim Acosta at the White House, thank you for that.
(....)
1:08 p.m. Eastern
KEILAR: And look, some of it does stick, obviously, to that point and to Jim's point, but at the same time when he tweets about all these things and then he doesn't tweet about white supremacy, you've got two of his top aides being asked questions about that, that and his mental fitness, and that's not really — because that's what George Conway was tweeting in response to was this Twitter tirade. That's not where the aides want to be. That's a big part of the conversation, too.
GLORIA BORGER: I mean, it's kind of stunning that you have to have the acting white house chief of staff, or whatever his title is, go on television and say, the President is not a white supremacist.
KEILAR: And I don't know how many times I have to say that. Mick Mulvaney said that.
BORGER: Exactly. I don't know how many times I have to say that and — and also Kellyanne Conway this morning who, obviously her husband was tweeting about the president's mental illness — alleged had to sort of say, no, no, you know, the President is fine. He’s not. So, it's kind of stunning that it has come to this, that is — that is what we're talking about right now.
