On Friday’s New Day, CNN co-host John Berman and guest host Erica Hill conspired with political correspondent Abby Phillip to protect Joe Biden from his racist comments that he made at a virtual convention with the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Latino Journalists. Phillip excused Biden as being “a gaffe machine” and “not the person who was at the top of people's list for racial fluency.”
Hill and Phillip began by colluding to defend Biden for his racist remarks:
ERICA HILL: The President also, Abby, going after former Vice President Biden on comments that he made the other day about the Latino community and also the African-American community here in the United States. And he had to do a little bit of cleanup after that, but the President really seizing on that moment. I'm not sure that is landing the way he intended either.
ABBY PHILLIP: Yeah, I mean look, for starters, Joe — what Joe Biden said in that interview, which aired yesterday, was clearly wrong. I mean it was just factually not correct. And that's why you saw him clean it up and in some ways, although it wasn't quite an apology, tried to explain what he meant. Joe Biden is not the candidate who is going to — who is the most fluent candidate on issues of race. That has always been true. That was true in the campaign. He even —even running against multiple black candidates, Hispanic candidate, Joe Biden is not the person who was at the top of people's list for racial fluency, and yet he still has the support of a majority of black voters. And I think that for President Trump, it's a hard argument to make because the — the President has spent much of the summer defending Confederate statues, defending the Confederate flag, calling Black Lives Matter a symbol of hate, doing all of these things that really erode his own credibility on issues of race. So it's very difficult for this to be one of those arguments where voters -- he might -- might expect black voters in particular to turn away from Joe Biden and to him.
If they were not Democratic shills, Hill and Phillip would acknowledge that Biden’s comments fit into his long history of racism. Earlier in his campaign, Biden said blacks “ain’t black” if they do not vote for him. He called the Daughters of the Confederacy “fine people” at a Senate hearing. In the late 1970's, Biden was a leading segregationist and justified it by saying that he did not want his children to grow up in a “racial jungle." He also praised ardent segregationist, George Wallace: “I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace — someone who’s not afraid to stand up and offend people, someone who wouldn’t pander but would say what the American people know in their gut is right.” In 1994, he championed a crime bill through the Senate which has contributed to mass incarceration of African Americans. Biden referred to those who would be affected by his bill as "predators on our streets." Biden has also praised Robert Byrd, who was a grand wizard in the KKK. Furthermore, Biden referred to Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
Berman and Phillip continued to minimize Biden’s comments, and attacked Trump for questioning Biden’s mental state:
BERMAN: Clearly he needed to do some cleanup there because the statement is factually incorrect. Abby, it's in the same vein when you say that the President's going after Joe Biden on issues of race when the President goes after Joe Biden on issues of mental acuity or cognitive ability. There is, you know, some example of irony in the last 24 hours on this.
PHILLIP: Yeah — yeah, I mean, look, the — the Trump campaign is trying to find something to — to really work in their effort to bring Joe Biden down. One of the main things has been this idea that Joe Biden is — is losing it, mentally. But this is all happening in the context of the President, for example, just yesterday, reading the word "Thailand" from the teleprompter as "thy-land." I mean these are the kinds of things that I think it's very difficult to make these arguments for this president who himself has a long history of these kinds of gaffes. One of the troubles for the Trump campaign also is that just like perhaps voters are used to President Trump and these kinds of public missteps, they might also be used to Joe Biden and these kind of public missteps. Joe Biden has been known to be a gaffe machine for much of his political career. It has, in some ways, proceeded his advanced age and so it is not something that I think would be new to voters.
CNN is the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party, so it will defend Biden no matter what he does.
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Read the full August 7th transcript here:
CNN's New Day
08/07/20
6:27 AM ET
JOHN BERMAN: A lot of things that have been said over the last 24 hours that raise eyebrows and raise questions. In Ohio, the President lands there, and he accuses Joe Biden of something -- well, let's watch.
(Cuts to clip)
DONALD TRUMP: He's going to do things that nobody ever would ever think even possible because he's following the radical left agenda. Take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the bible, hurt God. He's against God.
(Cuts to live)
BERMAN: He's going to hurt God. He's against God. Now, it's possible that that was the product a limited vocabulary, but beyond that, it's just a really, really stunning claim.
ABBY PHILLIP (CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT): I think over the last few weeks, you've seen the President and -- and -- the -- the Trump campaign just in general, it -- it's like taking, you know, a -- a 2 X 4 and -- and hitting voters over the head with it. There is absolutely no subtlety left in the political messaging these days. The President is speaking to his base. He's trying everything that he can to make sure that he energizes and keeps his base of conservatives, but particularly white evangelical Christians with him. That's what this is all about. But, I mean, the reality is, and I don't have to tell you, John, or -- or Erica that -- this, the President, you know, those who -- who believe the President is a devout man, they are already with him. Those who believe that Joe Biden is -- is -- is not, they're probably not voting for Joe Biden. So I -- you think the idea that you can convince voters that Joe Biden is sort of an atheist, even though he's well -- well known to be a devout Catholic, is just -- it's hard to believe and I think it's a little bit of an insult to voters on some level.
BERMAN: And, by the way, a devout Catholic who has leaned on his faith through some very difficult times --
PHILLIP: Yeah.
BERMAN: -- and speaks more fluently on the subject of faith than the President does, be that as it may.
ERICA HILL: The President also, Abby, going after former Vice President Biden on comments that he made the other day about the Latino community and also the African-American community here in the United States. And he had to do a little bit of cleanup after that, but the President really seizing on that moment. I'm not sure that is landing the way he intended either.
PHILLIP: Yeah, I mean look, for starters, Joe -- what Joe Biden said in that interview, which aired yesterday, was clearly wrong. I mean it was just factually not correct. And that's why you saw him clean it up and in some ways, although it wasn't quite an apology, tried to explain what he meant. Joe Biden is not the candidate who is going to -- who is the most fluent candidate on issues of race. That has always been true. That was true in the campaign. He even -- even running against multiple black candidates, Hispanic candidate, Joe Biden is not the person who was at the top of people's list for racial fluency, and yet he still has the support of a majority of black voters. And I think that for President Trump, it's a hard argument to make because the -- the President has spent much of the summer defending Confederate statues, defending the Confederate flag, calling Black Lives Matter a symbol of hate, doing all of these things that really erode his own credibility on issues of race. So it's very difficult for this to be one of those arguments where voters -- he might -- might expect black voters in particular to turn away from Joe Biden and to him. That may not even be the objective. The Biden -- the Trump campaign is really trying to chip away at Joe Biden's black -- support among black voters through apathy, primarily. And that might be the objective here. But the idea that somehow President Trump has more credibility on these issues, I think, most voters will find that hard to believe.
BERMAN: It is notable that the Biden campaign, or Joe Biden, issued a personal statement clarifying/sort of apologizing for suggesting that the black community is not diverse.
PHILLIP: Yeah.
BERMAN: Clearly he needed to do some cleanup there because the statement is factually incorrect. Abby, it's in the same vein when you say that the President's going after Joe Biden on issues of race when the President goes after Joe Biden on issues of mental acuity or cognitive ability. There is, you know, some example of irony in the last 24 hours on this.
PHILLIP: Yeah -- yeah, I mean, look, the -- the Trump campaign is trying to find something to -- to really work in their effort to bring Joe Biden down. One of the main things has been this idea that Joe Biden is -- is losing it, mentally. But this is all happening in the context of the President, for example, just yesterday, reading the word "Thailand" from the teleprompter as "thy-land." I mean these are the kinds of things that I think it's very difficult to make these arguments for this president who himself has a long history of these kinds of gaffes. One of the troubles for the Trump campaign also is that just like perhaps voters are used to President Trump and these kinds of public missteps, they might also be used to Joe Biden and these kind of public missteps. Joe Biden has been known to be a gaffe machine for much of his political career. It has, in some ways, proceeded his advanced age and so it is not something that I think would be new to voters. And that's why it's been really difficult for them to get this one to stick, but they are still trying. It's -- it's -- I would say, John, a huge part of the Trump campaign right now is the memes and the messaging around Joe Biden and his mental acuity.
BERMAN: Yeah, it's hard to make this matter in -- in a pandemic, but let's play this moment before we go to break here. Let's play this geography lesson.
(Cuts to clip)
DONALD TRUMP: And to avoid liability, shifting production to thy-land and to Vietnam.
(Cuts to live)
BERMAN: By the way, thy-land not far from lap-land and the other side of quad-city, right?
PHILLIP: Right. Exactly.
BERMAN: It had to be said.
PHILLIP: We all know where thy-land is, right?
BERMAN: Yeah, we do. In this pandemic -- in this pandemic, we're all much more familiar with thy-land.
HILL: Yeah. When I can travel again, that's the first place I'm going.
