In the aftermath of the Charlottesville attack, two of the Big Three Networks (ABC and NBC) were quick to cast blame on President Trump for the violence and the lives lost on Sunday. To round out the Big Three, CBS brought up the rear during Face the Nation where guest Jamelle Bouie argued that if one was looking for the “roots” of the attack, “you don’t have to look very far from the White House.”
The root of Bouie hyperbolic accusation was a question from moderator John Dickerson, who teed up his Slate colleague to smear the President. “Jamelle, the President said he wants to find out what happened in Charlottesville, and seek for the roots of this. What's your reaction to that,” he asked.
“That if you're looking for the roots why white supremacist and neo-Nazis felt emboldened to March on a college town, you don’t have to look very far from the White House,” Bouie asserted. “You just have to look at Trump and his refusal to, at any stage condemn these people.”
The Slate writer also slammed Trump claiming he “refused to condemn” Klansman David Duke for supporting his presidential campaign. But that’s not at all true according to the facts. As was well documented back in March 2016, Trump denounced Duke and his hate group several times.
"I disavowed him. I disavowed the KKK," Trump told the cast of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. "Do you want me to do it again for the 12th time? I disavowed him in the past, I disavow him now." He even called Duke “a bad person.”
But Bouie didn’t end his smearing there.
Bouie then suggested Trump wanted the support of racists and neo-Nazis in his base. “At a certain point, you're going to have to say that maybe the reason he doesn't condemn these people is because in one way or another he may see them as allies, see them as part of his activist base,” he surmised.
“I don't know how one deals with that, but if you're trying to examine the roots of this, then I think you have to look there,” he lamented.
It’s clear by Bouie’s disregard for the facts that his main goal was just to try and get the muck he was flinging to stick to the president. But such hyperbole does nothing to help stop the hate and bitter discourse. It does more to perpetuate division than bring people together.
Transcript below:
CBS
Face the Nation
August 13, 2017
10:53:24 AM Eastern…
JOHN DICKERSON: Jamelle, the President said he wants to find out what happened in Charlottesville, and seek for the roots of this. What's your reaction to that?
JAMELLE BOUIE: I think my reaction echoes everyone on this panel. That if you're looking for the roots why white supremacist and neo-Nazis felt emboldened to March on a college town, you don’t have to look very far from the White House. You just have to look at Trump and his refusal to, at any stage condemn these people.
Whether it’s David Duke that he refused to condemn, whether it's the fact that he brought someone like Steven Bannon, whose Breitbart catered to these people, into the White House. You look at the President's behavior. At a certain point, you're going to have to say that maybe the reason he doesn't condemn these people is because in one way or another he may see them as allies, see them as part of his activist base.
And that--I don't know how one deals with that, but if you're trying to examine the roots of this, then I think you have to look there.
…
