Along with panelists on Monday morning’s CNN Newsroom ripping President Trump’s speech and displaying a visceral hatred for non-liberals, these CNN personalities bolstered their takes on this weekend’s mass shootings by showcasing a nearly 14-minute-long beatdown of political commentator David Urban, who was the lone conservative panelist.
Co-host and former Obama administration official Jim Sciutto first went to Urban with a lengthy statement wondering “what will be done now” and flaunted how nearly 50 Republicans refused to appear on the show, putting the onus on whether the GOP “will....vote for anything different now” (as in massive gun control).
Urban correctly noted how mass shootings have been an unfortunate occurrence since 1966 with the bell tower sniper at the University of Texas, but Sciutto interrupted to suggest that everything has changed because of the weaponry. Urban countered that background checks for those battling mental illnesses could be expanded, but again Sciutto unilaterally decided that this form of action wouldn’t have stopped this.
So far, no word on what Sciutto or anyone else would have thought could have definitively stopped either attack besides a massive gun confiscation.
Urban brought up the breakdown in society and erosion of American families, but was quickly lectured by senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson, who blamed the President for the El Paso massacre (click “expand”):
HENDERSON: I mean, we have a President now where you have a manifesto where someone is calling out the President about his own speech, about Latinos. That certainly is something that has changed too. If that’s something you want to talk about, David.
URBAN: But, listen, take —
HENDERSON: Do you see that as something that's changed as well?
URBAN: — but — but, Nia, take — yeah, but the shooter says in the manifesto, why don't you take him at his own words. He said the President has nothing to do with this. The shooter says in his manifesto.
HENDERSON: Yeah, but he’s also acknowledging —
JOHN AVLON: No, not quite.
HENDERSON: — that the President's rhetoric is similar to his. That is also what he's — he's not completely absolving him. He's saying don't point to the President who has a similar rhetoric as the — as the shooter does.
Co-host Poppy Harlow then employed a classic liberal journalism trope, which was to disguise her liberal views as merely stating facts. When Urban brought up the fact that the Alexandria baseball field shooter was a diehard fan of liberal programming and pundits, Harlow stayed silent (click “expand”):
HARLOW: Yeah, I mean, I will just say I just want to bring in the Congressman Gutierrez, but — but David Urban, I would say Nia does make a point. One thing that has changed. A lot of things have changed, one thing that has changed is that the highest office in the land has seemed to make it okay to call people from other countries invaders and has said that congresswomen should leave this country, okay, minority congresswomen. I'm not going to fight with you about this because I want all the voices in. I'm just stating a fact that that’s one thing. You asked what has changed? That’s one thing that has changed. You’ll have your turn to talk again.
URBAN: But it doesn’t — Poppy, it's an unfair jump to make
HARLOW: I am not —
URBAN: — to say —
HARLOW: — it’s not.
URBAN: — that's advocating violence.
HARLOW: Nope.
URBAN: It’s unfair.
HARLOW: It's not an unfair jump when I say —
URBAN: But Poppy — when — when the —
HARLOW: — that one thing that has changed —
URBAN: — gentleman shot up, listen, Poppy —
HARLOW: — David Urban, one thing —
URBAN: — when the gentleman shot up the Republican soft —
HARLOW: — that has changed is the rhetoric in this country.
URBAN: Poppy, when the gentleman shot up the Republican baseball team, right?
HARLOW: Yep
URBAN: who was a — who was fan of social media on the left and television on the left and politicians on the left, did anybody — was there a human cry against those television personalities —
HARLOW: Look —
URBAN: — or those politicians that fueled the flames of that gentleman?
HARLOW: So Congressman Gutierrez —
URBAN: I'm just asking a question.
HARLOW: — to you.
Gutierrez finally took over with a softball from Harlow wondering if “the American people tomorrow morning, next Monday morning, expect anything different” and that children will be safe.
Unlike with Urban, CNN’s cast of hacks endorsed the ultra-left Gutierrez’s deranged screed for two minutes and 32 seconds. Here’s that crocodile-tear-filled rant in its entirety (click “expand”):
I'm not hopeful. I’m not hopeful. As much as I am grieving with the rest of the American people, I'm not hopeful. Let's remember that the Republican Party and evidenced by the fact that they won't show up on TV, on CNN, to speak to this issue, the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NRA. They do their bidding first and foremost and until that ends, nothing is going to happen and I say to my Democratic Party candidates, let's stop being spineless and standing up. We passed in 1993 the Brady Bill. We passed an assault weapons ban. We have to reexamine our relationship. This relationship that America and that Americans have with guns, and how it is and lastly, let's remember one thing. This is the President who began his campaign by saying Mexicans are murders, rapists, they’re drug dealers, we need to get rid of them. This is a President of the United States who calls people like me who come to the United States of America, breeders, animals and he has no self-examination today in his comments. He said that those that are — that are prejudice and bigotry and hatred are heartless, don't have a heart, don't have a soul. Well, Mr. President by our own words, you are heartless and soulless because you have been the propaganda chief of hatred here in the United States of America and look, black people can't go to church unless they're assassinated by a white supremacist. Jews can't go to the synagogues, Latinos can't go shopping, Muslims can’t go to the mosques. People live in fear because of hatred and yes, we need a war, a war on terrorism here in the United States of America to eradicate, but the first thing we need to do is the President of the United States has to stop, has to stop igniting the flames of hatred and bigotry and division in this country. We all bleed the same, we all defend this nation when it comes under attack. We are all Americans, not just you, Mr. Trump, and the people you want to vote for you. Represent us all. I don't believe any of what you said today. You have no legitimacy and you have no standing until you have your own personal self-examination about the contributions that you have made to white nationalism and white supremacy and its rise in the United States of America.
Urban was given a chance to respond and brought up the never-ending gun violence in Chicago, but was shouted down by Gutierrez while Harlow and Sciutto eagerly stood by. Gutierrez replied in one-minute-and-52-second rant that Trump doesn’t care about black people in Chicago because “[h]e is the inviter in chief in the violence that we are living in America” with “a huge platform and there was no self-examination of his own contribution.”
Harlow, Henderson, Sciutto, and John Avlon continued to bask in awe of this hate-filled former Congressman who, like the first rant, started crying like a complete drama queen (click “expand”):
Stop calling people like me breeders. Stop calling people like me murders. My mom and dad are great people. My children are great people. We came to America to contribute. Stop demonizing us. We love our neighbors and this contributed to the great success and democracy of what is America. Stop using us as political pawns in your game of reelection. The American people should be first for the record. We're going to be back here in two weeks, and here's what I predict, nothing happened because this President will not act. The last time we had the Brady bill, the last time we had assault weapons ban, we had a Democratic president and a Democratic House, a Democratic — and you know what the Republicans did? They used our advancement of gun control to take and make sure we didn't have a majority in the House of Representatives. They used it against us. So look, we have to stand up for the American people. Yes, my heart broke. Let's stop allowing people to break the hearts of the American people as they watch these deaths occur each and every day on TV and let's just say the President, you must have a self-examination and a self-reckoning with your own words and contribution to the death and mayhem that exists in America today.
Urban tried again to push back by noting how “[y]ou can't just make away magazines and think everything’s going to be better,” but was again beaten down by Gutierrez ranting about how “the Republican Party is owned by the NRA.”
And when Urban tried to point out that Democratically-controlled Congresses during the Clinton and Obama administrations didn’t pass gun control measures to supposedly thwart mass shootings once and for all, but Gutierrez again interrupted and was joined this time by fellow liberal Sciutto, who seemed to argue that the NRA scorecard was chiefly responsible for Republicans staying in office.
In nearly 14 minutes, CNN showed why the network run by puppetmaster Jeffrey Zucker was not only hostile to those not willing to endorse the network’s views (snarky chyrons and all) but views them as their enemy and thus must be silenced.
To see the relevant transcript from August 5's CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto, click “expand.”
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
August 5, 2019
10:23 a.m. EasternJIM SCIUTTO: David Urban, let me ask you, because the question following these attacks is always what is different? What will be done now? The President tweeted this morning the possibility of expanding background checks in exchange for immigration reform, yet the President came to the podium there, he did not mention that proposal again. He talked about video games. He talked about instituting the death penalty for hate crimes and I had a Republican congressman on earlier, the only one who said yes to our request among 50 sitting GOP lawmakers, and he again pushed back on moving too quickly on background checks or on gun control measures. I wonder — you're inside the Republican Party. Is there any change here? Will Republicans vote for anything different now, particularly if they don't hear from the President there calling for a particular gun control measure or background check measure after these shootings?
DAVID URBAN: So Jim, let me just start out by saying, like everyone, my heart goes out to all the families affected by this tragedy, both in Texas and in Ohio. It's horrific and I can't imagine what those families. So my thoughts and prayers are with those families and their friends. As to your specific question, Jim, you know, look, could go back to 1966. I was just looking at some articles and some data. 1966, School Book Depos — excuse me, at the top of the University of Texas bell tower, a shooter goes up, kills 15 people, injuries 30. That's how long this has been on — we've been talking about this. I looked at Bill Moyer's press statement, LBJ’s press secretary —
SCIUTTO: David, you know — David, the numbers are going up significantly in recent years. I know it didn't begin yesterday. But you know the Department of Justice figures, it's going up.
URBAN: No, no, Jim, so — so —
SCIUTTO: And the weapons make the death toll go up.
URBAN: — yeah, so let me just answer the question, Jim. Give me a second, right? So, I think that they need a holistic approach. I agree there needs to be much more common sense. You know, we talked about the mental health background checks, right? You shouldn't be able to get a weapon if you're being treated for a mental health issue. That's just common sense. Right, thing comes sense things like background checks —
SCIUTTO: There's no evidence that these shooters were being treated for mental health. I mean, there’s evidence that these shooters were being treated for mental health, so what measure is going to happen now?
URBAN: Jim, I don't know. Listen the Congress and the President need to sit down and really take something. I heard you earlier advocating for reducing clip size, right, if you had a smaller clip, you don't kill as many people. That's absolutely true. But these people are twisted, Jim. They'll find ways around that, right? They'll tape two clips together. You've been in a war zone, Jim. You see how you take a clip and you tape one and you tape the other one upside down, right, so you can change it quicker. The people who are perpetrating these crimes aren't normal. You watched the shooter walk into the Walmart. He had hearing protection and eye protection. What kind of sick person puts hearing protection and eye protection on before he goes to slaughter people? I mean, it’s sick — so you’re talking about —
SCIUTTO: I'm asking the question, what addresses that, the availability?
URBAN: — I — I don't know, Jim. Without banning, so you could advocate banning all assault weapons, all assault-style weapons, and then somebody is going to resort to something else. I mean, there has to be some sort of common sense approach taken here obviously to reduce these incredibly violent activities where unstable people get a weapon that could cause a lot more destruction than a normal, let’s say a handgun with a — if you went back to a revolver. But Jim, let's not forget, machine guns have been around, you know, since the mid-to-late 1800s. Early 1900s. Gangsters and criminals used them.
SCIUTTO: Not like this, David.
URBAN: In the Eliot Ness-era, John “machine gun” Kelly. No, but listen, what has been different? Machine guns have been available. Tommy guns. What — what has changed in American culture that makes people do what they're doing today? Weapons have been available for a very, very long time. Something has changed in society and something has changed in American families. Something has changed in our culture that somehow people —
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Unless something changed from the White House too. I mean, we have a President now where you have a manifesto where someone is calling out the President about his own speech, about Latinos. That certainly is something that has changed too. If that’s something you want to talk about, David.
URBAN: But, listen, take —
HENDERSON: Do you see that as something that's changed as well?
URBAN: — but — but, Nia, take — yeah, but the shooter says in the manifesto, why don't you take him at his own words. He said the President has nothing to do with this. The shooter says in his manifesto.
HENDERSON: Yeah, but he’s also acknowledging —
JOHN AVLON: No, not quite.
HENDERSON: — that the President's rhetoric is similar to his. That is also what he's — he's not completely absolving him. He's saying don't point to the President who has a similar rhetoric as the — as the shooter does.
POPPY HARLOW: Yeah, I mean, I will just say I just want to bring in the Congressman Gutierrez, but — but David Urban, I would say Nia does make a point. One thing that has changed. A lot of things have changed, one thing that has changed is that the highest office in the land has seemed to make it okay to call people from other countries invaders and has said that congresswomen should leave this country, okay, minority congresswomen. I'm not going to fight with you about this because I want all the voices in. I'm just stating a fact that that’s one thing. You asked what has changed? That’s one thing that has changed. You’ll have your turn to talk again.
URBAN: But it doesn’t — Poppy, it's an unfair jump to make
HARLOW: I am not —
URBAN: — to say —
HARLOW: — it’s not.
URBAN: — that's advocating violence.
HARLOW: Nope.
URBAN: It’s unfair.
HARLOW: It's not an unfair jump when I say —
URBAN: But Poppy — when — when the —
HARLOW: — that one thing that has changed —
URBAN: — gentleman shot up, listen, Poppy —
HARLOW: — David Urban, one thing —
URBAN: — when the gentleman shot up the Republican soft —
HARLOW: — that has changed is the rhetoric in this country.
URBAN: Poppy, when the gentleman shot up the Republican baseball team, right?
HARLOW: Yep
URBAN: who was a — who was fan of social media on the left and television on the left and politicians on the left, did anybody — was there a human cry against those television personalities —
HARLOW: Look —
URBAN: — or those politicians that fueled the flames of that gentleman?
HARLOW: So Congressman Gutierrez —
URBAN: I'm just asking a question.
HARLOW: — to you.
FORMER CONGRESSMAN LUIS GUTIERREZ (D-IL): Yes?
HARLOW: You said one thing that has I noted one thing that has changed. Congressman Gutierrez, to you know, the President just made a promise to our kids. He just said our kids are entitled to grow up in a world where this isn't their reality and he said, and I, “we vow to act with urgent resolve.” Should the American people tomorrow morning, next Monday morning, expect anything different?
GUTIERREZ: I'm not hopeful. I’m not hopeful. As much as I am grieving with the rest of the American people, I'm not hopeful. Let's remember that the Republican Party and evidenced by the fact that they won't show up on TV, on CNN, to speak to this issue, the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NRA. They do their bidding first and foremost and until that ends, nothing is going to happen and I say to my Democratic Party candidates, let's stop being spineless and standing up. We passed in 1993 the Brady Bill. We passed an assault weapons ban. We have to reexamine our relationship. This relationship that America and that Americans have with guns, and how it is and lastly, let's remember one thing. This is the President who began his campaign by saying Mexicans are murders, rapists, they’re drug dealers, we need to get rid of them. This is a President of the United States who calls people like me who come to the United States of America, breeders, animals and he has no self-examination today in his comments. He said that those that are — that are prejudice and bigotry and hatred are heartless, don't have a heart, don't have a soul. Well, Mr. President by our own words, you are heartless and soulless because you have been the propaganda chief of hatred here in the United States of America and look, black people can't go to church unless they're assassinated by a white supremacist. Jews can't go to the synagogues, Latinos can't go shopping, Muslims can’t go to the mosques. People live in fear because of hatred and yes, we need a war, a war on terrorism here in the United States of America to eradicate, but the first thing we need to do is the President of the United States has to stop, has to stop igniting the flames of hatred and bigotry and division in this country. We all bleed the same, we all defend this nation when it comes under attack. We are all Americans, not just you, Mr. Trump, and the people you want to vote for you. Represent us all. I don't believe any of what you said today. You have no legitimacy and you have no standing until you have your own personal self-examination about the contributions that you have made to white nationalism and white supremacy and its rise in the United States of America.
HARLOW: David urban, what is your response to —
SCIUTTO: John Avlon, if I could —
HARLOW: — I just would like to let David Urban respond to that.
URBAN: Poppy, listen. Congressman has his perspective, which I don't necessarily — which I don’t agree with. I again would go back and say I do believe we need some common sense. The Congress of the United States, I agree with the Congressman Gutierrez that congress needs to get into action and really find some common sense things about, you know, to deal with the gun problem in America. Look, in his state of Illinois in Chicago, more people die every week, every month from gun violence than do in the shooting. There needs to be a — there’s to be a holistic approach —
GUTIERREZ: Let’s end this. Let’s end this.
URBAN: — so Americans can be safe in their homes —
GUTIERREZ: Let’s end this.
URBAN: — and not worry about being killed anywhere.
SCUITTO: Alright, John Avlon, let me ask you a question —
GUTIERREZ: Here’s the problem —
SCIUTTO: — the question here, as always, is — John Avlon — just a moment —
GUTIERREZ: — Donald Trump doesn't care about inner city people that live in Chicago. He doesn’t care about people that live in Chicago that are dying because of gun violence. He doesn't care. He simply wants to use us as a foil to speak to his political base. Look, the fact is the President of the United States must stop inciting violence in America. He is the inviter in chief in the violence that we are living in America. He has a huge platform and there was no self-examination of his own contribution. Stop calling people like me breeders. Stop calling people like me murders. My mom and dad are great people. My children are great people. We came to America to contribute. Stop demonizing us. We love our neighbors and this contributed to the great success and democracy of what is America. Stop using us as political pawns in your game of reelection. The American people should be first for the record. We're going to be back here in two weeks, and here's what I predict, nothing happened because this President will not act. The last time we had the Brady bill, the last time we had assault weapons ban, we had a Democratic president and a Democratic House, a Democratic — and you know what the Republicans did? They used our advancement of gun control to take and make sure we didn't have a majority in the House of Representatives. They used it against us. So look, we have to stand up for the American people. Yes, my heart broke. Let's stop allowing people to break the hearts of the American people as they watch these deaths occur each and every day on TV and let's just say the President, you must have a self-examination and a self-reckoning with your own words and contribution to the death and mayhem that exists in America today.
SCIUTTO: John Avlon, I want to ask you a question here —
URBAN: Well, Jim and Poppy — Jim and Poppy —
SCIUTTO: — if I could —
URBAN: — listen.
SCIUTTO: Go ahead, David.
URBAN: I was just going to say. Listen, to the Congressman’s point, look, again, to go back, 1966 this is when this started. There was a Democratic president then. There have been plenty of Democratic presidents and Democratic Congresses with Democratic majorities to move common sense gun legislation forward. The — America needs to act. This is a — we do need to do things. There needs to be a holistic approach. You can't just make away magazines and think everything’s going to be better. We need a holistic approach to this and we need to address it so America can be safer.
GUTIERREZ: But the Republican party is owned by the NRA. It has to — it’s owned by the NRA.
URBAN: Congressman, that's a simplistic view.
GUTIERREZ: The President of the United States when he won his election went to the NRA. They contributed tens of millions of dollars to his campaign. They are foremost against any, any attempt by the legislative branches of government —
URBAN: Congressman, that doesn’t — that doesn’t explain —
GUTIERREZ: — and by the executive branches of government
URBAN: — that doesn’t explain during the Clinton and Obama administrations when you had majorities —
GUTIERREZ: — to put the people of the United States first again over their guns.
SCIUTTO: One at a time, please, gentlemen, we're not getting anywhere when you're talking over each other. David, David, a quick response and then I want to get to John Avlon.
URBAN: Yeah, I was just going to — look — just again, you know, there have been Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, but with large margins with a Democratic presidents. You know, Congressman Gutierrez is — is not telling the truth when he says this is simply the Republicans holding up the world.
SCIUTTO: No.
URBAN: That's not true. You're not being honest, congressman.
SCIUTTO: David, David, David, the facts are you know as well as me that the NRA ratings for Republican congressmen matter and if they vote for gun control legislation, they get primaried. That’s a fact. John Avlon, the question following these things —
URBAN: Jim, they matter — Jim, they mattered for Democratic congressmen as well. Jim, they matter for Democratic —
SCIUTTO: They do.
URBAN: — as well.
SCIUTTO: Okay, so —
URBAN: You can't lay this at the feet of the Republican Party.
SCIUTTO: David, did Democrat-controlled House — David, David, David, did Democrat-controlled House just passed a universal background check bill which has been blocked in the Senate. That's a recent example. That’s a fact.
