President Trump couldn’t complete his second day of tweeting in 2018 without multiple shots at the liberal media. With a tweet early Tuesday night, he hyped the fake news awards he planned to give out at the start of next week. And it caused the liberal media to have a mental breakdown, as demonstrated by CNN’s Brian Stelter, who predicted nothing but “madness” for 2018 during his appearance on Anderson Cooper 360 shortly after the tweet was put out.
The end of the first hour of AC360 was dedicated to Trump’s media taunting tweet, which read: “I will be announcing the most dishonest and corrupt media awards of the year on Monday at 5:00. Subjects will cover dishonesty and bad reporting in various categories from the fake news media. Stay tuned.”
Cooper teed up Stelter for his inane divination by asking what Trump’s tweet told him about the year to come. “Madness,” Stelter declared in his most serious of tones. “And I think we should start to call it that. Shouldn’t we?”
Stelter tried to back up his smear by citing other partisans who had been smearing Trump for well over a year. “You know, when President Trump was inaugurated last January, some writers, some columnists like Andrew Sullivan started right away to raise concerns about the President’s mental health; about fitness for office,” he explained.
Relying on Sullivan for a mentally balanced perspective proves Stelter’s partisan agenda and seething hatred for the President. After all, Sullivan was the guy who led the charge for the Trig Palin Truthers who viciously claimed that Sarah Palin wasn’t really the mother of her youngest son who had Down Syndrome.
The CNN media reporter then cited political opportunist and Republican Senator Jeff Flake (Ariz.) as someone else who questioned the President’s mental capacity. Stelter then laid out a “test” he concocted that Trump should be subjected to in order see if he was fit to still be president:
I think we could apply a test to his 16 tweets today. The test would be: If this were the leader of Germany or China or Brazil, what would we say? How would we cover these tweets? We would see these are the messages from a person who is not well, from a leader who is not fit for office.
Stelter used the classic tactic of employing someone else to make your point when you don't want to or feel like saying it yourself. Time will tell if Stelter moves toward arguing that Trump should be removed from office due to his supposed mentally illness.
Apparently realizing his guest went too far, Cooper tried to pull him back by explaining what Trump supporters would argue: “Well, the counterargument to that is: Look, he has a different style and other presidents have tried more diplomatic language, more presidential language vis-a-vis North Korea, and his supporters will say: “Well look, that didn't work and maybe this is the way to go.”
Stelter responded by claiming that Trump wasn’t really trying to push policy via Twitter like Obama did. He then touted how he actively prodded Twitter to see if the President’s taunt to North Korea could be taken down by the company.
“In fact, I've asked Twitter spokesman, does this violate Twitter's terms of service—Making this kind of threat to North Korea,” he gloated. “I think they are trying to decide if whether this tweet referring to a nuclear button that he knows how to use and it works, whether that is a violation of the term of service because it may threaten violence.”
This is similar to when Stelter and his CNN Money minions went around and pestered Fox News sponsors about dropping certain shows until they did. And this came on the same day that saw Newsweek equate Trump blocking people on Twitter to Iran's murderous regime cracking down on internet usage for ordinary citizens.
What a banner day for the media.
Transcript below:
CNN
Anderson Cooper 360
January 2, 2018
8:55:06 PM EasternANDERSON COOPER: Tonight's tweet from President Trump on the size and power of his nuclear button is one thing this tweet is another. It also came moments ago from the President, quote: “I will be announcing the most dishonest and corrupt media awards of the year on Monday at 5:00. Subjects will cover dishonesty and bad reporting in various categories from the fake news media. Stay tuned.” Joining us is CNN Senior Media Correspondent Brian Stelter. Any idea exactly what he's talking about?
BRIAN STELTER: This is something he seemed to propose before the new year, Anderson, the idea of a fake news trophy that should be awarded. The RNC then picked up on it and said they would take nominations. It seems the President, right out of reality TV here, wants to create a moment of drama where he will announce the winners. Obviously in the grand scheme of things, probably the least important tweet of the day. But this came a few minutes after the nuclear button tweet. So, what’s on the President’s mind? We know what's on the President's mind. 16 tweets today to start the new year. Some of them deeply disturbing.
COOPER: Right, considering how the new year has started, what does it say about the year?
STELTER: Madness. And I think we should start to call it that. Shouldn’t we? You know, when President Trump was inaugurated last January, some writers, some columnists like Andrew Sullivan started right away to raise concerns about the President’s mental health; about fitness for office. In the months that followed, we saw Republican senators like Jeff Flake bring these issues up, try to ask about his fitness for office. Bob Corker, another name that comes to mind. I think we could apply a test to his 16 tweets today. The Test would be: If this were the leader of Germany or China or Brazil, what would we say? How would we cover these tweets? We would see these are the messages from a person who is not well, from a leader who is not fit for office.
COOPER: Well, the counterargument to that is: Look, he has a different style and other presidents have tried more diplomatic language, more presidential language vis-a-vis North Korea, and his supporters will say: “Well look, that didn't work and maybe this is the way to go.”
STELTER: And certainly on Twitter, any president, whether it's former President Obama, now President Trump, future presidents of the U.S., they can use Twitter and Facebook and other social media tools to great effect to achieve legislative victories, to persuade the public to come to their side. But I don’t think that's what we’re seeing his use of Twitter tonight. In fact, I've asked Twitter spokesman, does this violate Twitter's terms of service—Making this kind of threat to North Korea. So far, no immediate comment from the company, still waiting to hear. I think they are trying to decide if whether this tweet referring to a nuclear button that he knows how to use and it works, whether that is a violation of the term of service because it may threaten violence. These are the questions that social media companies now have to ask themselves.
