CNN political commentator and USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers wore her disdain for Trump supporters and middle America on her sleeve during Wednesday night’s Anderson Cooper 360, as she berated them and President Trump for playing the victim.
In the wake of ABC firing Roseanne Barr and canceling her show after her racist tweet, President Trump pointed out the liberal media’s double standard for downplaying similar transgressions against conservatives and others. The White House detailed just a handful of examples of their hypocrisy and CNN refused to address them. They instead chose to whine and cry about Trump was supposedly making it all about him, that’s where Powers came in.
“And I'm also not surprised, frankly, that he has turned this into a grievance because that's what he does and that's what a lot of his voters like,” she bitterly spat. “[T]o be in this state of perpetual grievance that they have it so hard, even though none of those things that he mentioned comes anywhere near close to what Roseanne Barr did to Valerie Jarrett.”
A short time later, Trump supporter and CNN political commentator Paris Dennard took Powers to task for dismissing the heinous actions of her fellow liberals and listed them off. When he got to Joy Behar’s bigoted comments about Christians, Powers picked that hill to die on and suggested it wasn’t that terrible.
“You can't seriously be saying that Joy Behar saying something about Christians is the same as saying Valerie Jarrett is the child of an ape,” she scoffed. “First of all, I'm a Christian also and she apologized for it. But you can't seriously say that's the same thing as saying a woman is the child of an ape?”
Yes, Kirsten, one can seriously point to what Behar said as an act of bigotry. Behar didn’t just say “something” about Christians. She accused every single one of them of having a “mental illness.” That is discrimination and bigotry just like Roseanne’s. Behar did apologize but it took a solid month and a massive campaign led by the MRC against ABC and The Views’ advertisers.
“[I]t's always about the grievance of the Trump voters rather than just saying that something's wrong. It doesn’t matter that those other things happened,” Powers continued. “I just don’t know why you keep doing this whataboutism. It’s just—you keep claiming this is what liberals do and it’s what you do.” The thing about crying “whataboutism” is that it’s actually a form of whataboutism.
After the show came back from a commercial break, the panel spoke more about how selfish Trump was for pointing out the double standard. Powers picked up where she left off and continued to rail against those people. “I think this is what his voters like, grievance. To be, we are aggrieved, look how hard we have it, the big, bad liberals are so mean to us and there's such a double standard.”
“The idea that there weren't apologies is not accurate. But even if there weren't, grow up,” she exclaimed. “You’re the president.”
For CNN, the narrative they were peddling never actually included a conversation about the media’s propensity to downplay or flat out ignore bigotry against conservatives or Christians. And not just conservatives. ESPN’s Keith Olbermann has made derogatory comments about women and MSNBC’s Joy Reid has published homophobic blog posts. Both continue to get rewarded.
The relevant portions of the transcript are below, click "expand" to read:
CNN's Anderson Cooper 360
May 30, 2018
9:05:42 PM Eastern(…)
ANDERSON COOPER: Kirsten, were you surprised that the President did not at least say something about the racist nature of her comments or used this as an opportunity to address anything?
KIRSTEN POWERS: No, I wasn't surprised at all because I don't think he ever really takes an opportunity to condemn racism, even when his own -- when people, you know, the alt-right people were attacking a journalist, Julia Ioffe, and he was asked about it for being Jewish, and he just said, “I'm -- you know, I have no message for my fans.”
You know, rather than saying, oh, maybe my supporters shouldn't be sending pictures of a journalist with her head photoshopped on, you know, concentration camp victims’ heads. So I'm not surprised by that at all. And I'm also not surprised, frankly, that he has turned this into a grievance because that's what he does and that's what a lot of his voters like, to be in this state of perpetual grievance that they have it so hard, even though none of those things that he mentioned comes anywhere near close to what Roseanne Barr did to Valerie Jarrett.
(…)
PARIS DENNARD: But I think the president's point about -- well, to your point about the way Trump supporters and people filed these grievances. Yeah, the point that he made did not come close to what some other people have said that did not have the same reaction from ABC or the mainstream media or networks in response to their racist comments. You can go down the list. Joy Behar has said, Jimmy Kimmel his black face, Joy Reid –
POWERS: You can't seriously be saying that Joy Behar saying something about Christians is the same as saying Valerie Jarrett is the child of an ape.
DENNARD: As a Christian, I take offense to her–
POWERS: First of all, I'm a Christian also and she apologized for it. But you can't seriously say that's the same thing as saying a woman is the child of an ape?
DENNARD: What about joy Ann Reid and what he said about homosexuals, what about Cedric Richman and what he said about Kellyanne Conway, essentially calling her a whore. What about Game of Thrones putting George W. Bush’s head on a stake. What about Joe Biden, the former vice president joking, saying that “you can't walk into a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' donuts without having workers having an Indian accident” or “President Obama having a main street African-American who's articulate, bright, clean, and nice-looking guide” or Harry Reid, the senator saying, President Obama was “light-skinned with no negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.”
POWERS: Paris, you're doing exactly what I'm talking about, it's always about the grievance of the Trump voters rather than just saying that something's wrong. It doesn’t matter that those other things happened.
(…)
POWERS: I just don’t know why you keep doing this whataboutism. It’s just—you keep claiming this is what liberals do and it’s what you do.
(…)
POWERS: I mean, everything you just said would make sense for any president except President Trump because I don't think he wants to move past it. I think this is what his voters like, grievance. To be, we are aggrieved, look how hard we have it, the big, bad liberals are so mean to us and there's such a double standard.
And so he goes right into that, because that's exactly what they want to hear. And then we get the list of all the other things that, you know, that's so unfair. Never mind that he's the president of the United States. Why is he even care if someone apologizes for these things? And you know, even to say that none of these people paid a price. I mean, Kathy Griffin didn't pay a price? She paid a price? Joy Behar, didn't she call Mike Pence? She apologized for it. The idea that there weren't apologies is not accurate. But even if there weren't, grow up! You’re the president.
JASON MILLER: Kirsten, you just -- respectfully speaking, you just did the thing that Trump supporters go so nuts about, where you talk about them as a collective block.
(…)
