On Monday morning, President Trump kicked off his state visit to the UK. CNN New Day provided live coverage of the event, and was sure to bring up the an interview with The Sun in which Trump called Meghan Markle “nasty” in response to comments Markle made about Trump. Despite CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin calling the incident “not terribly important,” the show hosts spent nearly 15 minutes discussing The Sun interview across their 3 hour show. It seems that someone at CNN thought it was quite important to share repeatedly.
When Trump denied that he called Markle nasty, Toobin stated that the U.S. was now in a “1984-like scenario.” 1984, the classical work by dystopian author George Orwell, describes a totalitarian nation that regularly utilizes slogans such as “Ignorance is Strength” and “Freedom is Slavery.” Even attempting to connect these two administrations is ludicrous. It's a hard reach to equate a scenario in which a president denies an offhanded comment about a figurehead of another nation to one in which an entire government’s role is oppresses its citizens.
In the tweet which Trump denied the comments, he blamed the spread of it on the “Fake News Media.” Toobin was ready for that retort:
BERMAN: I didn't know that she was nasty. He just said nasty out loud. The President then later wrote, I never called Meghan Markle nasty.
TOOBIN: Made up by fake news media.
BERMAN: Right
TOOBIN: And I think fake news – I mean, it's so interesting. Fake news with the President has become a tell, like when he says "Believe me." That's almost always a lie. Fake news is now becoming kind of a tell for things that are true, and that's a classic example.
Hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota then went on to make remarks about the President watching New Day because it was all he could find in the UK. Berman and Camerota then bragged about the “global reach” of their network, and even made an odd comment about Trump not being “grateful” for their show:
CAMEROTA: By the way, he’s also tweeting about how riveted he is by “New Day” this morning and talking about CNN's global reach.
BERMAN: Good morning, Mr. President.
CAMEROTA: He’s watching because he said he couldn't find anything else because obviously, CNN has so much global reach that's all he can find in London. He's talking about-- well, not exactly how grateful he is for it, but he's certainly riveted by it.
The hosts wrapped up the segment complaining about how Trump is “norm-busting” and is tearing down institutions. These institutions included “honesty” because everyone in Washington, as well as those in the media, are known for their devout sense of honesty, and “levying harsh criticism” on the Mayor Sadiq Khan of London ahead of the President’s trip there. What was seemingly lost on CNN was the criticism that Trump received from the Mayor the day before his trip. Apparently, defending yourself is presidential.
Here’s the full transcript so you can read the interaction for yourself:
CNN New Day
06/03/2019
7:01 AM EST
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Joining us now to talk about this, Abby Phillips, CNN White House correspondent, Jeffrey Toobin, former federal prosecutor and CNN chief legal analyst, and Bianna Golodyrga CNN contributor. Great to have you. Obviously, we’ll break away for the live event as the pomp and circumstance begins. So Jeffrey, the idea that right before he lands he sends out this tweet of President -- I mean the mayor of London insulting him. Now, by the way, no love lost between them, because this was in response to the day before, Mayor Khan, Sadiq Khan, saying it is so un-British to be rolling out the red carpet for a formal state visit for a president whose divisive behavior flies in the face of the ideals that America was founded on. That was in response to calling Meghan Markle nasty. So, already there is a very public, unpleasant tiff between, you know, leaders and some of the royal family.
JEFFREY TOOBIN: That is true, but you know, I would like to focus, just for a second, on this “nasty” issue, not because it is terribly important what the President said about Meghan Markle, but the idea that the President would deny saying something that he's on audiotape saying is kind of a surreal 1984-like scenario which even for President Trump is especially surreal and bizarre.
JOHN BERMAN: Let’s play it.
TOOBIN: Yeah play it.
BERMAN: Let's play him saying the word nasty out loud. Listen.
[AUDIO TAPE PLAYS]
SUN REPORTER: She said she'd move to Canada if you got elected. Turned out she moved to Britain.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, that’d be good. You know, a lot of people are moving here. So what can I say? No, I didn't know that she was nasty.
[AUDIO TAPE ENDS]
BERMAN: I didn't know that she was nasty. He just said nasty out loud. The President then later wrote, I never called Meghan Markle nasty.
TOOBIN: Made up by fake news media.
BERMAN: Right
TOOBIN: And I think fake news – I mean, it's so interesting. Fake news with the President has become a tell, like when he says "Believe me." That's almost always a lie. Fake news is now becoming kind of a tell for things that are true, and that's a classic example.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA: The fake news media he’s referring to is the British tabloid “The Sun,” which is owned by Rupert Murdock, right? So, he's now calling Ave and his friend Rupert Murdoch's publication fake news.
CAMEROTA: By the way, he’s also tweeting about how riveted he is by “New Day” this morning and talking about CNN's global reach.
BERMAN: Good morning, Mr. President.
CAMEROTA: He’s watching because he said he couldn't find anything else because obviously, CNN has so much global reach that's all he can find in London. He's talking about-- well, not exactly how grateful he is for it, but he's certainly riveted by it.
BERMAN: I will also say, if attorney general William Barr is watching, I keep harping on this. William Barr did an interview last week where he said “no, the President doesn't do norm-busting. Don’t get on him for that.” Well, honesty about a word like nasty, that’s a norm and an institution, honesty. Another institution is you don’t --
CAMEROTA: Weigh in?
BERMAN: Well, I'm trying to think of a word that, you know, the FCC wouldn't have a problem with. As you are landing in a foreign country, Abby, you don't typically levy harsh criticism on the mayor of the host city, you know, criticizing or degrading the leaders you're about to meet with in that country. That's an institution.
ABBY: Absolutely, and we should be clear about what the President did versus what Sadiq Khan did. I mean I think this ongoing feud between the two of them has been going on for quite some time, but Khan was criticizing President Trump's politics. President Trump upon landing in London was criticizing Sadiq Khan's height. These are very different kinds of critics and President Trump clearly sent that tweet seconds before Air Force One touched down at the airport knowing it would cause an enormous firestorm, but taking the debate to a different place. Going from whether or not President Trump and Sadiq Khan agree on their politics to whether or not Khan is a stone cold loser who is as short, or shorter than the New York Mayor Bill De Blasio. So this is actually the kind of thing we are very much used to and I was listening to commentary on, you know, British television this morning. And I think that even here, I think, people have settled in to the fact that president trump is likely to do this when he comes onto foreign soil. This is not just President Trump reacting. He clearly did this with a great deal of intention, intending to set this kind of tone as he comes to London knowing he's facing a lot of blowback, protests, and just really turmoil around the fact that he's going to be here this week.
CAMEROTA: It's not just the lack of diplomacy. The norm-busting is also that he's weighing in on British politics at this time of great turmoil. He's saying how supportive he is of Nigel Farage and of Boris Johnson. He’s weighing in. I mean, just as they are trying to figure out who is going to lead the way forward through Brexit somehow, usually a President of the United States stays away from interfering in internal politics.
GOLODRYGA: Especially when there is a political crisis going on in Britain that's been playing out for two years. This is now the second time the President weighed in prior to meeting with the Prime Minister. Now this prime minister is obviously a lame duck. She has a few days left. Friday is her last day in office. Last year, remember, when he met with her, he gave an interview with another British publication in which he endorsed Boris Johnson. So he seems to be following suit with a pattern that we have seen before. This is the President weighing in on Brexit, supporting Brexit. This is something he supported from the get-go, and he believes plays into what he supports here domestically as well in terms of politics.
BERMAN: You know it’s interesting, Max Foster said something in the last hour and we’ll get Max back on in just a second. He’s at Buckingham Palace. But the thing that may upset the President the most this morning is that Max said the crowds are small in comparison to past events he's been in. Now, that might be because of a lot of things. One reason might be the sense of weariness at this point. The British public maybe just has had it with this and the controversy.
TOOBIN: Well the good news is that if the crowds are small he can always lie that they're big, because that's his approach to, you know, inconvenient facts. You know, the question I always have about the President's statements these days is how much do we discount them for saying, oh, well, that's just the President. Now people around the world are discounting him that way. The question is what does it mean when the President's word means so little? I don't know the answer to that.
GOLODRYGA: And it's happening on foreign soil with a country having an existential crisis. Great Britain could change over the next couple of years. It has drastic effects on the U.S. This is our closest, most personal relationship in terms of foreign countries, and that could seemingly change as we know it over the next year or so, if not sooner, and for the President to be weighing in, it may help him short term, long term we could see drastic changes and impacts on our relationship.
