On Wednesday morning, CNN’s New Day aired a panel featuring eight Republican women from the Dallas, Texas area. In the face of biased, manipulative questions, the women pushed back against the liberal media.
CNN anchor Randi Kaye asked the panel of women a series of pointed questions, ones designed to pressure them to denounce President Trump so that CNN could show its viewers that the President is losing support amongst female voters. Only, the women pushed back:
KATHLEEN LIEBERMAN [PANELIST]: Whoever wrote these questions up, it's clear they're manipulative, instead of extracting the truth.
PANELIST: It’s a tactic.
LIEBERMAN: Because when you say, you know, don’t you think he’s a racist? You're accusing us. You're accusing him.
Kaye got heated, and insisted that she was merely asking questions:
KAYE: I’m asking, I’m not accusing! I’m asking you what you think.
LIEBERMAN: But your tone! Okay, it's irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the real – it has nothing to do with the premise of the issues here.
The anchor at one point was so astounded that the women didn’t fall into the liberal media’s groupthink, that she felt the need to read the definition of racism to the panel:
KAYE: Let me just share with you the definition of racism from Meriam-Webster Dictionary: A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacity, and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Based on that definition, do you not think what the President has been saying –
PANEL: No! No!
GINA O’BRIANT [PANELIST]: No. He dated a black woman for 2 years. Two of his wives are immigrants. He is not a xenophobic racist.
DENA MILLER [PANELIST]: If the first black billionaire is endorsing President Trump, how can you call him racist?
After airing the interview, host Alisyn Camerota believed that it was “fascinating” to hear the reasoning of someone who disagreed with the media spun narrative. She then went on to imply that Trump supporters won’t listen to academics “with facts and numbers”:
CAMEROTA: Randi, great panel. So fascinating to hear their reasoning and their rational. Thank you very much for sharing it with us this morning. You know, I think that we've come to the point where what sort of the academics who think they can impress upon people with facts and with numbers, and they’ll get them to change their mind. I think that that doesn't work. What the President is great at is appealing to people's feelings and their guts.
She wrapped up the segment by stating that the right only defends the President because he plays on their fears. That’s only a reasonable conclusion when one ignores the dissatisfaction the country has with the media’s insistence to vilify anything conservatives do.
Here is the complete transcript from the segment:
CNN New Day
07/17/2019
7:42 AM
ALISYN CAMEROTA: In the wake of President Trump's racist tweets against those four Democratic Congresswomen of color, is the President's base still behind him? Well, let's ask this: are women still behind him? CNN’s Randi Kaye spoke with a group of Republican women in Dallas. She is live for us in Frisco, Texas, with their reaction. What a panel and what reaction you got, Randi.
RANDI KAYE [CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT]: Absolutely, Alisyn. Good morning. It is remarkable. It seems as though there’s nothing that Donald Trump can do to shake these eight Republican women from here in Dallas, Texas. They are still die hard supporters, still on the Trump Train, and even in this most recent controversy, they feel that these Congresswomen are racists, and Donald Trump still has their full support.
[VIDEO PLAYS]
KAYE: How many of you don't think what the President said was racist? Raise your hand.
[EVERYONE RAISES THEIR HAND]
KAYE (NARRATION): These eight Republican women from Dallas don't see anything wrong with President Trump telling four Democratic congresswomen to go back where they came from.
DENA MILLER [PANELIST]: He was saying that if they hate America so much because what we're seeing out of them and hearing out of them they hate America. If it's so bad, there's a lot of places they can go.
PANELIST: I'm a brown skinned woman. I am a legal immigrant. I agree with him.
KAYE: You don't think that's racist to say that to them?
PANELIST: No, not at all.
KATHLEEN LIEBERMAN [PANELIST]: Actually, I think it’s just -- It's a demonstration of how their ideology spills over. Even though they’re American now, so to speak, they're not acting American.
GINA O’BRIANT [PANELIST]: I'm glad the President said what he said, because all they're doing is they’re inciting hatred and division, and that’s not what our country is about. It’s not about that at all and I --
KAYE: But isn't that what the President does with some of his own comments? His own racist comments?
O’BRIANT: But he didn’t say anything about color.
CAMI DEAN: We know the President is not racist. He loves people from, you know, Hispanics to black people, all across the board.
KAYE: Let me just share with you the definition of racism from Meriam-Webster Dictionary: A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacity, and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Based on that definition, do you not think what the President has been saying –
PANEL: No! No!
O’BRIANT: No. He dated a black woman for 2 years. Two of his wives are immigrants. He is not a xenophobic racist.
MILLER: If the first black billionaire is endorsing President Trump, how can you call him racist?
KAYE: So these congresswomen, who said they ran for Congress – ran for office because they explicitly love this country, you’re saying that’s a lie?
PANEL: Yes.
KAYE: You’re saying they hate this country?
PANEL: Yes.
LIEBERMAN: Whoever wrote these questions up, it's clear they're manipulative, instead of extracting the truth.
PANELIST: It’s a tactic.
LIEBERMAN: Because when you say, you know, don’t you think he’s a racist? You're accusing us. You're accusing him.
KAYE: I’m asking, I’m not accusing! I’m asking you what you think.
LIEBERMAN: But your tone! Okay, it's irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the real – it has nothing to do with the premise of the issues here.
PANELIST: Exactly.
PANELIST: And whatever someone –
PEACHES MCGUIRE COATES: The color of the –
LIEBERMAN: Why do you keep bringing it up?
KAYE: Do you think it's just a coincidence that these four congresswomen that the President is going after, none of them are white?
PANELIST: These four –
O’BRIANT: They’re going after him!
COATES: I don't think it matters. It's idiotic what they're saying. So it doesn't matter whether they're white, man, woman, brown, yellow, anything.
MILLER: I wish that there was a white one. Why are they not racist? How come they haven't befriended one of their white female congresswomen colleagues and let her join the group?
COATES: Because they won’t.
MILLER: It’s because they don’t like white people. Come on! They’re racist.
KAYE: How many of you still plan to vote for President Trump?
[EVERYONE RAISES THEIR HANDS]
O’BRIANT: Absolutely.
PANELIST: Absolutely.
CAMEROTA: Randi, so insightful. So, those women just squarely were putting the blame on the congresswomen for any sort of tension, not the President.
KAYE: Absolutely, Alisyn. They believe the congresswomen attacked the President. That the President simply was defending himself and this country. They believe the congresswomen are the ones who are divisive. They don’t think the President has been devise at all, as you heard there. They believe the congresswomen are spreading hate. They believe they have some sort of agenda, some sort of ulterior motive, and that they ran for office, not because they love this country, but because they want power. They said they also think that they should apologize to the President and that if they don't like it here, they should go back to where they came from. They believe that the President is simply standing up for America, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Randi, great panel. So fascinating to hear their reasoning and their rational. Thank you very much for sharing it with us this morning. You know, I think that we've come to the point where what sort of the academics who think they can impress upon people with facts and with numbers, and they’ll get them to change their mind. I think that that doesn't work. What the President is great at is appealing to people's feelings and their guts.
ERICA HILL [FILL-IN HOST]: And their fears as well.
CAMEROTA: And their fears. Sure, and their fears. And so you just hear that time and again how effective that is, and why people get so passionate, I think, defending their positions and defending him on that.
HILL: Absolutely. And it's interesting, too, even when we hear repeatedly from the President things that are not true, outright lies in some cases. People who really support this President and that are very happy with what they're seeing, that's not important to them, and that's another thing to remember as well.
