New Day co-hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota on Thursday took turns reading out loud a letter that President Trump recently sent to Turkish President Recep Erdogan. The letter contained blunt language in which Trump urged Erdogan not to be a "tough guy" or a "fool."
Berman then turned to Jim Acosta, CNN's White House correspondent, and Trump antagonist extraordinaire, and sneeringly said: "We have this letter with this language that isn't exactly at Ph.D. level."
Acosta took Berman's insult a step further, interrupting to say, "nothing unusual here." Agreed Berman, "Nothing unusual."
Question: Does CNN really care about the letter's language? Or is it just looking for any opportunity to mock President Trump, and by extension his supporters, who are likely to find his unvarnished approach refreshing?
Here's the transcript.
CNN
New Day
10/17/19
6:02 am EDTALISYN CAMEROTA: We begin this conversation with an extraordinary piece of presidential correspondence. President Trump wrote a letter to Turkey's President Erdogan, warning him not to invade Syria. The White House confirms it was written last week on the same day that Turkey did begin its military offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria.
So here now, we're going to just — listen. Some of our colleagues read this in real-time yesterday as they got it. But it’s now been 12 hours, and I think it deserves more analysis. So you and I are going to read this letter in full. Do you want to start?
JOHN BERMAN: You go ahead.
CAMEROTA: All right. Here we go [reading letter.] "Dear Mr. President, let’s work out a good deal, exclamation point. You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy—and I will. I've already given you a little sample with respect to Pastor Brunson."
JOHN BERMAN: The president goes on, "I have worked to solve some of your problems. Don’t let the world down. You can make a great deal. General Mazloum is willing to negotiate with you and he's willing to make concessions that he would never have made in the past. I'm confidentially enclosing a copy of his letter to me, just received. History will look favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don't happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool, exclamation point. I will call you later. Sincerely, Donald Trump."
. . .
BERMAN: Jim Acosta, chief White House correspondent, is here with us this morning. So we have this letter with this language that isn’t exactly at Ph.D. level.
JIM ACOSTA: Nothing unusual here.
BERMAN: Nothing unusual.
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