After Tuesday’s heated press conference over Charlottesville, the media has been in a renewed frenzy over Trump’s comments. Over at CNN, the outrage seemed to be at its worst, with hosts sounding just like their radically left-wing guests. On the 7am hour of CNN’s New Day, fill-in host Poppy Harlow actually asked liberal reporter and CNN analyst April Ryan if Trump's slogan “Make America Great Again” was referring to the days when the KKK terrorized the South.
The panel discussion started between the Daily Beast’s John Avlon, CNN political analysts David Gregory and April Ryan, and hosts Chris Cuomo and Poppy Harlow. The panel started off “fact-checking” Trump’s claims that the white supremacist group had a permit to protest, before quickly moving on to attacking Trump. Gregory lamented Trump “reverting to form” deciding to “whip up social disruption and deepen the social disruptions in our society as opposed to trying to tamp it down the hatred that an event like this represents.”
Avlon then blasted the press conference as “a new low” of historic press conferences.
JOHN AVLON: After the president’s disastrous press conference -- in the pantheon of historic press conferences this was a new low by Donald Trump standards or any historic standards. The only people who came out to support him, there were a couple of paid shilts doing happy talk on Twitter, but were David Duke and white nationalist leaders, white supremacist leaders. If that doesn't cause a gut check, a reality check on the part of people working in the white house, what will? This president seems to have completely abdicated the moral authority that should go with the office of the president and the responsibility to at least try to unite the nation.
Host Poppy Harlow then lamented that this press conference showed “what was in” Trump’s “heart.” She asked CNN analyst April Ryan if standing up for white supremacy was what Trump “meant by make America great again.”
POPPY HARLOW: People standing next to him, Gary Cohn, Steve Mnuchin. Also Jewish, as well as his daughter. His grandchildren. April Ryan, as someone who has covered the White House for a long time and questioned the president in the briefing room. This is what was in his heart, what is in his heart. He made that clear in the press conference yesterday. Is this what he meant by make America great again?
“I believe so,” April Ryan said soberly. Ryan then began to rehash the liberal conspiracy theories about Trump’s “code words” signaling to white supremacists that he was on their side. Her primary example? A fictionalized story from the media that the bust of MLK was removed by Trump from the Oval Office.
RYAN: While he was candidate Trump, many people said there were code words he was using. Make America great. And the question was, one of my questions was, at what point in our history is he talking about America being great, and we want to go back to. Supporting this yesterday shows us. It's very interesting, in listening to the conversation all morning and last night, I'm heartsick, but I have several questions this morning. What does Benjamin Netanyahu have to say about this? Because I remember just a few months ago Benjamin Netanyahu came to the United States and said Israel has no greater friend than Donald Trump. This is bigger than just everyone talking about the heart and moral authority. And then you know I also think about at the beginning of this president's entrance into the Oval Office, the big story -- I remember Zeke Miller made a mistake talking about the king bust wasn't there. The reason why it was such a big deal is because so many people were concerned about the president's heart and his mind when it came to issues of inclusion and race. That statue is still in the Oval Office, well at least, last we checked. So those are two things they need to question this morning.
