On Tuesday morning’s New Day, CNN hosts Alisyn Camerota and John Berman brought on Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond and CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers to discuss Nascar drivers showing support for Bubba Wallace. However, the segment quickly devolved into the hosts and guests bashing President Trump.
Sellers even claimed that Trump will be on the same “side of history” as “Bull Connor, Lester Maddox and George Wallace.” Of course, he didn't mention that these segregationist governors were all Democrats.
Camerota initiated the assault on Trump by asking McCammond about a video that he retweeted on Monday night:
President Trump last night retweeted an unrelated video of a department store altercation in which a black guy punched a white guy. With, for no, no, I mean, no explanation, no reason, he gave of why that would be relevant. And you know, I think that at times we -- we come to think of – we sort of overlook President Trump's Twitter feed, but that -- why does he want that message to get out right now? And of course, we can play the game of, imagine if President Obama had tweeted the inverse of that. Why?
McCammond responded with a series of false claims about Trump’s response to the Black Lives Matter protests:
Yeah, you know, and thank you for having me, and good morning to you all. I mean, I'm obviously reminded of the tweet that he sent not that long ago where he said, in part, when the shooting starts, the looting -- or, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." And that's something that, you know, a lot of Republicans close to him privately started to take issue with. And this is another example of something that President Trump is doing, apparently, to fan the flames and sort of, you know, exacerbate these racial tensions that we're already seeing played out throughout the country. And racial tensions is generous. These are overt and egregious acts of extreme racism.
The noose for Bubba Wallace is just one example of what we've seen. And you know, I think that what's interesting is the president likes to lament the fact that he thinks news against him is fake news, but he's consistently only pushing one side of the narrative on this. He's not acknowledging the motivation for the protests, the problems with police brutality, the problems with racism, systemic and systematic. He's not talking about these broader issues that black Americans are facing.
She omitted that following the death of George Floyd, Trump tweeted his support for his killer being brought to justice and announced that the FBI would be investigating the killing. She also did not acknowledge that Trump signed an executive order on June 16th aimed at reforming the police.
McCammond also attacked Trump’s supporters:
All those things and more are missing when he's tweeting out these videos that are instead -- plays, it seems, to his base that love that type of red meat.
Obviously, Trump’s voters are racist deplorables who do not care about black people dying.
Sellers one upped McCammond by comparing Trump to vile, 1960s segregationists:
And right now, we see history is changing. And history is turning. And this is when you have to ask yourself a very simple question: What side of history are you going to be on and how are you going to be remembered? And I think that many of us have -- have echoed for a long period of time that Donald Trump was going to be on the wrong side of history. And he appears to do so. I mean, you can choose the side of Bull Connor, Lester Maddox and George Wallace if you want to.
McCammond then praised white people for not being “afraid to speak out against racism.” However, in recent weeks, if people or companies have not agreed with the Black Lives Matters narrative, they have been viciously attacked and canceled.
Not content to just compare Trump to racists from half a century ago, Sellers suggested that Trump will attempt to fix the upcoming election.
The full June 23rd transcript is here:
CNN New Day
06/23/20
6:27:32 AM
ALISYN CAMEROTA: And Alexi, at the same time that that’s happening, President Trump last night retweeted an unrelated video of a department store altercation in which a black guy punched a white guy. With, for no, no, I mean, no explanation, no reason, he gave of why that would be relevant. And you know, I think that at times we -- we come to think of – we sort of overlook President Trump's Twitter feed, but that -- why does he want that message to get out right now? And of course, we can play the game of, imagine if President Obama had tweeted the inverse of that. Why?
ALEXI MCCAMMOND (AXIOS POLITICAL REPORTER): Yeah, you know, and thank you for having me, and good morning to you all. I mean, I'm obviously reminded of the tweet that he sent not that long ago where he said, in part, when the shooting starts, the looting -- or, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." And that's something that, you know, a lot of Republicans close to him privately started to take issue with. And this is another example of something that President Trump is doing, apparently, to fan the flames and sort of, you know, exacerbate these racial tensions that we're already seeing played out throughout the country. And racial tensions is generous. These are overt and egregious acts of extreme racism. The noose for Bubba Wallace is just one example of what we've seen. And you know, I think that what's interesting is the president likes to lament the fact that he thinks news against him is fake news, but he's consistently only pushing one side of the narrative on this. He's not acknowledging the motivation for the protests, the problems with police brutality, the problems with racism, systemic and systematic. He's not talking about these broader issues that black Americans are facing. The only thing we really hear from him is that he's done more for black Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln and that unemployment is so low for African-Americans that we should be happy. That is not the narrative of America, and that is missing. All those things and more are missing when he's tweeting out these videos that are instead -- plays, it seems, to his base that love that type of red meat.
JOHN BERMAN: And what's striking to me is that, while there are those trying to play wedge politics, or drive a wedge there -- and the president is clearly one of them -- again, Bakari, what NASCAR and others are saying is, No, thanks. No, thanks. It seems to be that whatever might have been receptive to wedge politics before isn't as receptive now.
BAKARI SELLERS (CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR): Well, let's be hopeful.But even Richard Petty and Bubba Wallace -- And I mean, that just feels good to say. Oh, and don't forget, John, Taylor Swift, are all moving the country into a more positive direction. And the president of the United States can either get on this train and be a unifier or, or not.
CAMEROTA: Alexi, you haven't been on our program for the past week, but Bakari is very high on Taylor Swift right now and her role -- her role in all of this.
MCCAMMOND: I mean we can laugh at that, and I think it is funny, but it is another example, Bakari, of the buy-in from white folks in this moment to your point about it being different.
SELLERS: That's right.
MCCAMMOND: I mean that's what's crazy. The Nascar rally was another example of that. Like, there is so much buy-in from so many types of people who previously were so afraid to say anything, and I'm just heartened that people aren’t afraid to speak out against racism, which like, you know, we shouldn't be afraid to speak out against that.
BERMAN: Something else the president has done over the last 24 hours, and I really don't think it's completely disconnected, Bakari, is to really lean into these false claims about voting and mail-in voting, and suggesting that the election in November, four months away, will be rigged. Why? Why do you think he's doing this? It's kind of a pregame pre-buttal here.
SELLERS: Yeah, and I -- I think what we're seeing is a president -- is a president who sees his poll numbers dropping precipitously. And so he's trying to use every tool he has in the toolbox to reshape the narrative. He's going to give his base red meat, as we've been seeing. He's going to have these false claims about mail-in balloting, because we do know two people who vote via mail-in ballot -- well, three, Kaleigh McEneny, Mike Pence and Donald Trump all use mail-in ballots, right? And so it's a bit ironic that he's now talking about the fraud in this process. But he is going to do absolutely everything he can, using all of the power of the executive branch of government. And that's why Democrats need to be cautious, that's why, you know, everyone needs to be cautious about counting -- counting your proverbial chickens before they hatch. Joe Biden hasn't won anything. And Donald Trump is going to do absolutely everything in his power, everything that he has under the auspices of the executive branch, to make sure that doesn't happen. This misinformation is just one. And don't -- we haven't even gotten to the point of foreign interference or who he may solicit to help him in this race as we go down the road.
CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, we have gotten to some of it. We have seen some examples of it, and it's in John Bolton's book, and of course, he was impeached.
