As is often the case for DNC TV CNN, Wednesday’s New Day compared Donald Trump to history's monsters. This time, it was when CNN hack John Avlon openly compared Donald Trump to slaveholders during the Civil War with warped views of liberty. Avlon described people who have supported the President or believe his claims this way: “Without knowing it, you bought into what Abraham Lincoln once called the Wolf's Dictionary.”
CNN has not been silent about its opinions of Trump’s ongoing legal battle over the 2020 presidential election, saying he will ‘scorch the earth of America’ or that he is destroying a national moment of pride, among other things. Remember, this is the same network that was running ads after the election demanding we all come together: “Now more than ever, we need each other -- to listen, to learn from one another, to rebuild those bonds.”
Avlon, to his credit, does discuss several of the slogans and issues that supporters of the President have fought for but remarks that they “don't fit the objective reality of what you're actually fighting for.” Instead, he openly equates it to efforts to preserve slavery during the height of the Civil War.
It is an absolutely wild comparison that has little actual parallels to that time period, or any actual relevance outside of Trump bashing. For those who do not know, the “Wolf’s Dictionary” was a parable given by Abraham Lincoln in 1864 to encourage the state of Maryland to abolish slavery.
It has nothing to do with accepting elections, but with ensuring that the practice of slavery was abolished. This did not stop Avlon from creating his own Wolf’s Dictionary and then declaring: “Lincoln said that the wolf's dictionary has been repudiated. We need to repudiate the wolf's dictionary today.”
Not once during the segment did the leftist hack give any evidence to back up his claims or his wild comparison, but in usual fashion, gave several ideas that he declared as facts. It is creating controversy where there isn’t any and cheapening the horrific experiences that millions went through with slavery.
Contrast that to CNN’s coverage of Joe Biden’s cabinet picks later in New Day, when CNN political analyst remarked: “Yeah, I mean, I see it -- you know, you always see this in cabinet picks, we are kind of getting back to regular order where there is controversy around cabinet picks and not something more startling we've been dealing with in the Trump world.” No comparison to slavery there!
Ignoring that once again, CNN is not doing its proper job and digging into Biden’s nominees like they did Trump’s, it further shows their bias. Would there have been as much controversy about Donald Trump if they had not gone out of their way to make some?
Rather than do their duty to the American people, CNN seems determined to spin controversy while propping up their own preferred candidates and policies.
This CNN bias was sponsored by Liberty Mutual and WeatherTech. Click on the links to let them know what you think.
A transcript of the December 9th Coverage is included below:
New Day
12/9/20
6:48 AM ETALISYN CAMEROTA: So what do President Trump's supporters and Wolf's Dictionary have in common? John Avlon is going to tell us in his reality check. Hi, John.
JOHN AVLON: Hey, Ali. In the five weeks since election day, it often feels like we're having a debate in a hall of mirrors. President Trump trying to overturn an election while saying he's protecting election integrity. Death threats leveled at election officials by people who accuse them of doing violence to our democracy. And now an uptick in civil war rhetoric, chapters as what was once known as the party of Lincoln. Last county the Dane county GOP held a rally at Wisconsin state capitol. They promoted by saying, our nation is on a path to civil war. Yesterday, the Arizona State GOP sent out a tweet asking followers if they're willing to die in the effort to overturn election results. This is aggressive defensiveness and dangerous nonsense. But what makes it worse is that so many of Donald Trump's supporters have bought into the big lie. They've been misled into believing they're fighting for the very virtues they're being used to attack. And here's how it works. Starting at the top of the disinformation chain.
DONALD TRUMP: I am determined to protect our election system, which is now under coordinated assault and siege. We will restore honesty and integrity to our elections and we will restore trust in our system of government.
AVLON: The opposite is true. Our election system is under siege, but from Trump and his league team. And no President has done more to erode trust in our system of government than Trump with he has refusal to respect the election. But Trump's alternate reality gets amplified on hyper partisan media. Check out these graphics from "Hannity" the other night, “Restoring Election Integrity”, “Demand Transparency”, and “Fight for Trump”. Well, Lou Dobbs and Stephen Miller stoke each other's outrage over a banner which read, "Trump campaign fights for free and fair elections." If you only listen to right-wing echo chambers, you might believe it all. So you go to a rally and hold a sign that says, “Defend Democracy”, or “Stop the Steal”, or “Stand for Truth”. These are admirable emotions, but they don't fit the objective reality of what you're actually fighting for. Without knowing it, you bought into what Abraham Lincoln once called the Wolf's Dictionary. Back during the real civil war, Lincoln agonized that both sides believed they were fighting for liberty, yes, even confederates were fighting for slavery under the cloak of state's rights. He addressed the problem in a parable, that when the shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, the wolf denounces him as the destroyer of liberty, especially if the sheep was a black one. The wolf and the sheep have very different definitions of liberty. But as the war raged on and some border states voted to abolish slavery, Lincoln said that the wolf's dictionary has been repudiated. We need to repudiate the wolf's dictionary today. That means insisting that facts matter and words have real meanings, or to use a favorite conservative refrain, facts don't care about your feeling. That means listening to the Trump appointed judges who ruled that the campaign cases have no basis in fact or law and are speculative accusations unsupported by evidence. In a stunning string of more than forty failed lawsuits that now extent all the way to the Supreme Court. If you say you believe in the rule of law, you need to respect the rule of law. If you say you're a proud patriot, then put country over party. And then let's work together in good faith to reason together, because we are not as divided as the screamers say. And that's your reality check.
JOHN BERMAN: First of all, I love that Lincoln speech. I'm so glad you just put a spotlight on that. John, I have two quick questions. Number one, the wolf, not wolf Blitzer here, correct?
AVLON: Very important to distinguish, not, in fact wolf Blitzer.
BERMAN: And second thing, you do have a shepherd's costume?
AVLON: That's usually what I go for for Halloween, as a shepherd.
CAMEROTA: Very fitting.
BERMAN: Thank you, John.
New Day
12/9/20
8:51 AM ET[…]
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Here is a graphic of the cabinet picks of Joe Biden as we know them thus far, the big question mark we see there is for Attorney General. We expect that might come next week, but in the meantime the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin seems to be possibly encountering a bumpy road ahead. What do you see?
GREGORY: Yeah, I mean, I see it -- you know, you always see this in cabinet picks, we are kind of getting back to regular order where there is controversy around cabinet picks and not something more startling we've been dealing with in the Trump world. For General Austin to get that waiver since he was recently in the military now seems like kind of a small point but it's not a small point. The idea of civilian leadership at the Pentagon is considered a bedrock foundation. The waiver was given so easily to Jim Mattis because, I think, Democrats and Republicans felt like, oh, my gosh, you've got to have somebody with that kind of experience around Donald Trump, so they rushed to do it. I think here you're even seeing Democrats like Jack Reed of Rhode Island who said at the time it should never be done again, we will see if he sticks to that under this case, but that doesn't seem to be a critical reason to do it. He also has ties to Rafeon the defense contractor. I think there are people in political circles who celebrate the fact this is an amazing note of diversity to have an African-American man run the Pentagon, at the same time you have someone like Michele Flournoy a woman who has been passed over several times. There is some feeling among the allies of the President-Elect and Democrats who are looking at the full landscape and saying, hey, women are not getting their due here completely as there is also attention toward other kinds of diversity, which will make the ag pick even more important.
[…]
