On Thursday morning’s CNN Newsroom, host Poppy Harlow brought on political correspondent Abby Phillip and presidential historian Douglas Brinkley to discuss the Supreme Court’s rulings on President Trump’s tax returns. The Democratic hacks were not interested in objective analysis of the cases, but instead on how the rulings could harm Trump's chances in the 2020 election. Brinkley declared “a very dark day for Donald Trump” and even suggested that the tax returns may land the President in jail.
Phillip began the discussion by praising the supposed honesty of CNN's candidate of choice, Joe Biden:
Yeah, he is re -- re-upping this message that he's been saying for quite some time saying that he has released 21 years of his tax returns and he is pressuring President Trump to do the same. It's a window into how this becomes a political issue for the President, even though the court does not necessarily force these records to become public or to go to Congress. Biden is essentially saying what do you have to hide to President Trump, and I think that's what is underlying, you know, the other element of what all of this means.
If Phillip is discussing candidates that have something to “hide,” she should begin with Biden. The presumptive Democratic nominee has tried to obscure his racist history, repeatedly plagiarized speeches, and was caught cheating in law school. Biden also lied about being in the top half of his law school class. Furthermore, Biden’s Cancer Initiative spent almost two-thirds of its donations on its top executives and very little on actual cancer research.
She of course will never discuss Biden’s lack of integrity because she wants him to win the election. The Democratic shill then claimed that Trump was “obviously” trying to “hide” something in his tax returns:
Yes, it is, as Jeffrey has said, a practical victory for President Trump, but as you can see from the President's tweets, he remains concerned about the prospect that this information that he's been trying for many, many years to hide might become public, might become part of a public sphere and might actually be used against him whether he's in office or not. He is not over that possibility. This is a -- a president who has been a businessman his whole life, but has always run a private company. It has never been subject to public scrutiny and the President really wants it to remain that way for the next four months. There will not be a mechanism to force the President to do this, but there will be an enormous amount of political pressure from Biden and from -- from others for the President to show that he is not in fact trying to hide something because obviously he is based on his tweets as Kaitlin just read, remains incredibly concerned that these investigations going on in New York in particular could have an impact on him, near -- near term, long term, whether he's president or out of office.
Brinkley then upped the ante for spewing Democratic talking points by making even more outrageous claims:
I find this to be a very dark day for Donald Trump. This is his greatest fear. You know, he has now, Vance has open season on trying to get these documents loose and -- and have a grand jury. Trump has been doing everything and anything to prevent that. We just have to imagine, what are in his tax returns? Whether in his financial documents and you know why -- whenever we get to see them, whenever the public learns about him, it’s going to be very difficult for Donald Trump. You know what, if Trump loses he may end up being a cellmate next to Cohen.
Brinkley then auditioned for the role of Biden press secretary:
Who knows where this could lead to. Trump wanted a clean victory here, but I do agree in the short-term political re-election front, you know, Biden is going to be saying I released my taxes, you’re -- you’re -- you’re a coward. What are you covering up, Mr. President? Open up you’re -- you’re tax returns, you promised it.
CNN does not care about the actual facts regarding Trump’s tax returns. It only cares about attempting to make him look bad.
This DNC-TV was brought to its viewers by Pedialyte. Go here to let advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Read the full July 9th transcript here:
CNN Newsroom
07/09/20
10:52:56 AM
POPPY HARLOW: Let me go to Abby Philip who joins us and Doug Brinkley as well, our historian for the - the perspective on this. But Abby, I had to jump in, I’m sorry, when you were speaking last to get to the court for the other decision. The, you know, the former vice president, Joe Biden, is weighing in on this. What's his message?
ABBY PHILLIP (CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT): Yeah, he is re -- re-upping this message that he's been saying for quite some time saying that he has released 21 years of his tax returns and he is pressuring President Trump to do the same. It's a window into how this becomes a political issue for the President, even though the court does not necessarily force these records to become public or to go to Congress. Biden is essentially saying what do you have to hide to President Trump, and I think that's what is underlying, you know, the other element of what all of this means. Yes, it is, as Jeffrey has said, a practical victory for President Trump, but as you can see from the President's tweets, he remains concerned about the prospect that this information that he's been trying for many, many years to hide might become public, might become part of a public sphere and might actually be used against him whether he's in office or not. He is not over that possibility. This is a -- a president who has been a businessman his whole life, but has always run a private company. It has never been subject to public scrutiny and the President really wants it to remain that way for the next four months. There will not be a mechanism to force the President to do this, but there will be an enormous amount of political pressure from Biden and from -- from others for the President to show that he is not in fact trying to hide something because obviously he is based on his tweets as Kaitlin just read, remains incredibly concerned that these investigations going on in New York in particular could have an impact on him, near -- near term, long term, whether he's president or out of office.
HARLOW: That’s a very good point. You know, what -- what are the implications of this, Douglas Brinkley, for the President if he wins a second term or if he is out of office and does not? I'll push people to page 21 in the tax decision, the Vance case and the New York prosecutor case, where the Chief Justice, John Roberts, writes this: “200 years ago a great jurist of our court established that no citizen, not even the President is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding.” Because that’s what this is. “We reaffirm that principle today and hold that the President is neither absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas seeking his private papers nor entitled to a heightened standard of need.” So looking forward, whether he wins the presidency again or not, what does what happens at the low court and may ultimately return to this court, mean for him?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY (CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN): I find this to be a very dark day for Donald Trump. This is his greatest fear. You know, he has now, Vance has open season on trying to get these documents loose and -- and have a grand jury. Trump has been doing everything and anything to prevent that. We just have to imagine, what are in his tax returns? Whether in his financial documents and you know why -- whenever we get to see them, whenever the public learns about him, it’s going to be very difficult for Donald Trump. You know what, if Trump loses he may end up being a cellmate next to Cohen. Who knows where this could lead to. Trump wanted a clean victory here, but I do agree in the short-term political re-election front, you know, Biden is going to be saying I released my taxes, you’re -- you’re -- you’re a coward. What are you covering up, Mr. President? Open up you’re -- you’re tax returns, you promised it. That will be going on for the next four or five months, but Donald Trump now has to live in a state of extreme paranoia that all of his financial records are going to be being opened and looked at in New York, and let’s -- we're talking about the speed of this, Poppy. I mean, Vance has been waiting and waiting and waiting. He's getting a green light now. They are going to be prioritizing looking into Donald Trump’s records. They may -- it won’t happen before November, but you're looking at if he got re-elected and -- and he was president in 2021, this becoming a dominant story of the year.
