The liberal media often suggest President Trump was the one with thin skin; just look at how they lionize Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s jabs at him. But during Tuesday’s Anderson Cooper 360, CNN proved themselves to be the ones with thinner skin when they cut away from Trump’s 2020 campaign launch rally in Orlando, Florida after the crowd started chanting “CNN sucks.”
Trump was discussing how the 2016 election was “a defining moment in American history” and told the crowd to ask the media for confirmation of that fact. The crowd booed at first but that gave way to the “CNN sucks” chanting. “By the way, that is a lot of fake news back there. That's a lot. That's a lot,” the President quipped.
Then, just as Trump was getting back on track and talking about how the election “was our chance to reclaim our government,” CNN fill-in anchor John Berman appeared.
“All right. We've been watching the President kick off his reelection bid. He's been on stage for about six minutes. Within two minutes he did talk about the economy, but within four minutes it was attacks on the media,” he whined.
Berman then looked for a take from CNN political director David Chalian, who processed to lecture the President about wasting his opportunity to talk to the American people about his accomplishments:
But, is Donald Trump going to seize this moment to frame his argument to the American people as to why they should renew his contract for another four years, or is he just going to present us the Trump show, you know, and air his grievances and start the bashing of the free press.
“And he shows no desire whatsoever to try and actually seize this moment to do something different,” Chalian complained. But wasn’t it the media’s narrative that Trump had no accomplishments?
That criticism was echoed by chief political analyst Gloria Borger. “He should say, ‘I've changed the country for the better’. But he can't keep himself from talking about his grievances,” she decried. “And I'm sure later in his speech he'll get to his grievances with the Democratic candidates when he wonders off, but his first grievance as always was against the press.”
Borger wondered how long it took Trump to start going after the press and Berman kept count (click “expand”):
BORGER: And he couldn't help himself by going there after, what, four or five minutes?
BERMAN: Yeah, it was—I had him starting at 8:14 it was four minutes in.
BORGER: Right. Exactly.
BERMAN: Two minutes in was the economy and four minutes in was that other message.
“And you could probably see his speech writers holding their head in their hands going ‘oh my god, just read the prompter,’” she mocked.
The next person on hand to deliver their hot take was chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, for some reason. He thought it was “crazy” that his colleagues thought Trump would act any other way:
Well, you know, remember he won the last election. You know, all this, “oh, isn't it terrible he's attacking the press?” He won by attacking the press. He won by being Donald Trump. He won by attacking immigrants. I mean, you know, the idea that Donald Trump should listen to some speech writer rather than his own political instincts seems crazy to me.
“I mean, this is who he is. This is how he won. And like why should he change,” he added.
So, President Trump and his supporters mocked the press and CNN had an absolute meltdown. All that over a “CNN sucks” chant. And isn’t CNN supposed to be the “facts first” news outlet?
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
June 18, 2019
8:18:35 p.m. Eastern(…)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The fact is the American dream is back. It's bigger and better and stronger than ever before. 2016 was not merely another four-year election. This was a defining moment in American history, ask them right there. [Points to the media in the back]
CROWD: [Boos] CNN sucks! [Repeats]
TRUMP: By the way, that is a lot of fake news back there. That's a lot. That's a lot.
CROWD: [Cheers]
TRUMP: You know what I say? The amount of press we have tonight reminds me of the Academy Awards before it went political and their ratings went down the tubes. True. This was our chance to reclaim our government.
[Cuts back to the studio]
JOHN BERMAN: All right. We've been watching the President kick off his reelection bid. He's been on stage for about six minutes. Within two minutes he did talk about the economy, but within four minutes it was attacks on the media, so. He was on a bright rosy future but then quickly reverted to some of the same themes he been talking about since he began running four years ago today.
If I can, I want to bring back our panel to talk about what we've heard so far. David Chalian, it was notable to see one of the things we were watching for, Rick Santorum mentioned it before, would the President focus on the economy and he immediately did saying the economy is thriving, prospering, and booming. He called it perhaps the best economy ever. That message lasted about 30 seconds.
DAVID CHALIAN: Yeah, I mean, if the test tonight was is Donald Trump – obviously nobody expects Donald Trump to change. So, I don't think anyone will be surprised. But, is Donald Trump going to seize this moment to frame his argument to the American people as to why they should renew his contract for another four years, or is he just going to present us the Trump show, you know, and air his grievances and start the bashing of the free press. And he shows no desire whatsoever to try and actually seize this moment to do something different.
Again, I don't think that's terribly surprising. I will note this one thing, John, that he said that I think is interesting. He said that 2016 was not your typical election, that it was a defining moment in history and it just struck me when he said that, because that is exactly what the Biden campaign put out in a statement in advance of this; framing this as make Donald Trump an aberration. Do not make it a defining moment of history. And I think you just saw how the Biden and the Trump teams are looking at where we are in just completely different terms.
BERMAN: They’re looking at the same moment in completely different terms, but they’re talking about the same types of things. Which is interesting because they are the two candidates that doing it and the rest of the Democratic field appears to be focused on something else.
(…)
8:23:03 p.m. Eastern
GLORIA BORGER: But look, Donald Trump tonight started out on the teleprompter doing what his campaign advisors wanted him to do. Talking about how he changed the system, talking about how he changed the country, talking about the good economy.
That is what he should be talking about. He should say, “I've changed the country for the better”. But he can't keep himself from talking about his grievances. And I'm sure later in his speech he'll get to his grievances with the Democratic candidates when he wonders off, but his first grievance as always was against the press. And he couldn't help himself by going there after, what, four or five minutes?
BERMAN: Yeah, it was—I had him starting at 8:14 it was four minutes in.
BORGER: Right. Exactly.
BERMAN: Two minutes in was the economy and four minutes in was that other message.
BORGER: And you could probably see his speech writers holding their head in their hands going “oh my god, just read the prompter.”
BERMAN: Jeffrey Toobin, your take?
JEFFREY TOOBIN: Well, you know, remember he won the last election. You know, all this, “oh, isn't it terrible he's attacking the press?” He won by attacking the press. He won by being Donald Trump. He won by attacking immigrants. I mean, you know, the idea that Donald Trump should listen to some speech writer rather than his own political instincts seems crazy to me. I mean, this is who he is. This is how he won. And like why should he change?
(…)
