During Sunday’s edition CNN’s Inside Politics, host John King was frustrated with President Trump’s supporters, both in the media and elsewhere, for what he suggested was their double standard on lying politicians. But in doing so, he exposed CNN’s own shifting standards for what they would and wouldn’t hold Democratic leaders accountable for.
After accidentally playing back-to-back clips of Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson and former Congressman Darrell Issa downplaying the infamous “Trump Tower meeting” instead of a clip of Trump, King was eager to knock around his supporters. “The President's supporters often say there's Trump Derangement Syndrome, they call it, among his critics and the media. Well, that's an example of Trump Can Do No Wrong Syndrome among his supporters,” he sneered.
Zeroing in on Issa, King chided how doggedly the former Congressman pursued accountability for the deaths of American diplomats in the terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi. “Darrell Issa did not say, ‘Well, she's a politician. Hillary Clinton, she didn’t get it exactly right. Susan Rice, she's great. Give her some grace, she didn’t say— ’” he huffed as he trailed off.
While King was trying to mock Issa for not holding Trump to the same standard, it actually demonstrated how CNN didn’t have the same desire to hold the Obama administration to the standard they were now applying to Trump’s. The Benghazi attack led to the deaths of four Americans yet CNN and rest of the liberal media often chastised Congressional Republicans for demanding and seeking accountability.
Aghast by the idea that President Trump still had supporters around the country, CNN Congressional correspondent Phil Mattingly chimed in and wondered: “What would have happened if Nixon always had defenders?”
“[T]hey didn't have the megaphone that the President’s supporters had now to continue to defend him, to continue to make the case that whatever comes out isn’t wrong, is whatever one else would have done, and he is in the right here in general,” Mattingly whined.
After decrying how Trump supporters see what the media was doing as “just an effort to try and take him down,” Mattingly seemingly proved them right by declaring that “this fight, right now, is a fight for public opinion. This fight right now is a fight over the airwaves.”
King was in “1,000 percent” agreement with his guest. And as if he was thinking back to a more civil time, he recalled how “I lived through covering the White House, the Bill Clinton team smearing prosecutors, and smearing the investigation, and casting doubt.” “This is that plus times ten I think,” he proclaimed. “At the core of it, forget the issue, forget your partisanship,” King continued. “[Trump supporters are] saying it's okay if the president lied. It's not okay if the president lies about anything!”
King’s comparison of Trump to Clinton was further evidence that CNN didn’t take equal accountability seriously. It was during the 90s that CNN obtained the “Clinton News Network” moniker for their pedestrian coverage of Clinton’s horrific behavior. They weren’t as interested in a lying president then and even complained they spent too much time on it.
This is CNN.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN
Inside Politics
July 29, 2018
8:09:05 AM Eastern(…)
TUCKER CARLSON: It's hard to see the point of all of this hysteria. What exactly would the crime here be? It's not illegal to talk to foreigners, nobody is claiming any information changed hands. Though, even if it did, so what?
DARRELL ISSA: If he's proven to have not told the whole truth about the fact that campaigns look for dirt and if someone offers it, you listen to them, nobody is going to be surprised. There are some things in politics that you just take for granted.
[Cuts back to live]
JOHN KING: That was not the president, obviously, but let's talk about that for a minute. The President's supporters often say there's Trump Derangement Syndrome, they call it, among his critics and the media. Well, that's an example of Trump Can Do No Wrong Syndrome among his supporters, who I think months ago, or let’s say if it was the Benghazi investigation, Darrell Issa did not say, “Well, she's a politician. Hillary Clinton, she didn’t get it exactly right. Susan Rice, she's great. Give her some grace, she didn’t say—” It's okay the president may have lied about the meeting with Russians or knowing about the meeting with Russians. I mean, what?!
(…)
PHIL MATTINGLY: You can joke about how it's been split up. This is a different scenario than perhaps past crises. You can look back and people talked about this perhaps during the Nixon administration. What would have happened if Nixon always had defenders? There was a 40 percent plus in the country that always defended him and supported him and didn't think he did anything wrong. But they didn't have the megaphone that the President’s supporters had now to continue to defend him, to continue to make the case that whatever comes out isn’t wrong, is whatever one else would have done, and he is in the right here in general and this is all just an effort to try and take him down.
That matters because as we talked about repeatedly, this fight right now is a fight for public opinion. This fight right now is a fight over the airwaves. We have no idea what the Mueller investigation is actually looking at right now. We don't know where SDNY is in terms of the progression of their case. So, this fight is a public battle. And as long as these camps sit in their places and have no desire to move one way or another, that's important. That will help dictate the direction.
KING: I get all of that and I agree with you 1000 percent. I lived through covering the White House, the Bill Clinton team smearing prosecutors, and smearing the investigation, and casting doubt. This is that plus times ten I think. At the core of it, forget the issue, forget your partisanship. They're saying it's okay if the president lied. It's not okay if the president lies about anything.
(…)
