To make a point, for CNN there's nothing quite like approvingly citing an official from a hostile radical leftist regime to condemn Donald Trump! And that's precisely what anchor Audie Cornish did on today's episode of CNN This Morning.
In support of her view that President Trump's newly-announced travel ban on certain countries makes the U.S. less "welcoming," Cornish approvingly cited a statement by an official in the regime of socialist Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro. Being in the U.S. is "a big risk for anyone, not just Venezuelans. If you're really that foolish, then go to the United States. They're supremacists who think they own the world and persecute our people for no reason."
Chief CNN domestic correspondent Phil Mattingly pitched in to say that in making the US less "welcoming," the travel ban is a "feature, not a bug" for the Trump administration:
"We're not trying to welcome people in. We're trying to make people prove why they should be here."
Saying it was quite "granular," Mattingly reported that the West Wing is aware of US officials at the consular level in foreign countries--i.e. the people empowered to approve or deny applications for entry to the US. And if those consular officials aren't "aligned with that version of how we do immigration [i.e., making people prove they should be here], they want them out."
Cornish reacted:
"I love that you said that. I want to underscore something you said. It's not just about keeping people out. It's making them prove why they should be here."
Cornish didn't say so in so many words, but it seemed to be a criticism of that policy. After all, she had decried the travel ban as making the US less "welcoming."
But raise your hand if you think the Trump administration shouldn't be aware of what its consular officials are up to, and shouldn't require applicants to prove that it is in the interest of the United States for them to be admitted?
Bueller? Bueller?
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
6/5/25
6:05 am EDT
AUDIE CORNISH: Well, one thing it has been effective as is changing the world's sort of view of the U.S. as a welcoming place.
But here's an example from a top Venezuelan official, who says "Being in the U.S. is, quote, a big risk for anyone, not just Venezuelans. If you're really that foolish, then go to the United States. They're supremacists who think they own the world and persecute our people for no reason."
PHIL MATTINGLY: I actually, I think it's an important statement, because that's a feature, not a bug, for this administration.
And I think the mistake people make when they look at individual policies is not understanding that this isn't happening in a vacuum.
This is part of a significant kind of effort --
CORNISH: Reorientation, yeah.
MATTINGLY: -- to try and invert a system. We're not trying to welcome people in. We're trying to make people prove why they should be here in terms of the US government.
And it's something that starts on, they know who's working at the consular level in these countries. And if they don't feel like they're aligned with that version of how we do immigration, they want them out.
And when you think, well, that's pretty granular. That's pretty ground level for the federal government, the West Wing, the White House to know about. No, no, they know about it. And personnel from that level all the way to the West Wing is part of this consideration, as is every single thing they've been rolling out over the course of the last couple of months.
CORNISH: I love that you said that. I want to underscore something you said. It's not just about keeping people out. It's making them prove why they should be here. And I think that's like a nuance sometimes people don't hear when they think about these bans. All right.
