The talking heads featured in CNN’s post-Republican National Convention commentary on Thursday were clutching their pearls so tightly they were being turned to dust. The network was so ready for the convention to be over with, that just mere seconds after President Trump finished speaking his last syllable, the Zuckerville collective were spouting off with accusations that the convention was “unethical” and shattered laws since it was held at the White House.
The event was allegedly so catastrophic that the union may never recover.
Completely ignoring how the media and the left had decried the President’s efforts to hold the convention in Charlotte, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida, despite the pandemic, host Jake Tapper proved just how consistently shoddy his work was by whining about it being held at the White House.
“It was thought to be inappropriate, a violation, perhaps even, of the Hatch Act to have White House individuals working on such an event clearly marked for a political event,” he proclaimed. “But once again, President Trump shattering norms, standards, perhaps even laws by holding such an event.”
And despite how there were thousands of left-wing extremists outside of the White House (and as this piece was being written, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was assaulted by them), Tapper whined about a lack of social distancing at the outdoor convention.
In that vein, political correspondent Abby Phillip touted the protesters by lying about them being “audible” during Trump’s address (Click “expand”):
ABBY PHILLIP: I do want to note, quickly, that as President Trump was speaking, you could literally hear in the background the protests that are happening just outside of the White House. You know, hundreds probably people who gathered in Black Lives Matter Plaza right above Lafayette Square and near the White House to protest. It was audible from the South Lawn where all of these festivities are going on.
One of the lines in President Trump's speech was about this stark divide. And he really leaned into that tonight. That was a core part of the speech and, you know, it is all about trying to clarify to the American public who they want them to think Joe Biden is.
Apparently, those protesters, who were also outside, weren’t a risk to spread COVID.
A short time later, Tapper huffed about the opera singer belting from the White House patio. “Can we just take one minute to acknowledge how untraditional, to use one word for it, the scene we're witnessing right now is,” he gawked.
Tapper eventually admitted it was “not the typical convention...because of the pandemic,” but that fact didn’t matter.
At a different point, Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer teamed up with Tapper in an attempt to defend their Democratic nominee:
BLITZER: Jake, he's suggesting that if Biden is elected this country will turn into a disaster. It will be a socialist, if not a Marxist, country. The economy will collapse and everything we know about America will go away.
TAPPER: Right. It's kind of preposterous.
If they thought that was “preposterous,” they should listen to the nonsense coming out of their mouths.
Drawing attention again to the opera singer, chief political correspondent Dana Bash complained: “It's bizarre to be having this conversation as we're listening to an opera singer sing Ave Maria on the South Lawn of White House. I mean, this is remarkable in every sense of the word.”
And just before they handed the hosting responsibilities over to Anderson Cooper, Phillip was back to assert the convention was so “unethical” that the country could never recover from it:
This is the President putting on a big show for the country in a way that a lot of people will say, and we should acknowledge, is unethical, the use of the White House in this way for a completely political event. And, you know, I don't know that we'll ever -- as Jake likes to say, I don't know that we'll ever come back from this.
Maybe they should look back to when then-President Bill Clinton sold off stays in the Lincoln Bedroom to his campaign donors. That’s just a tad bit more unethical than being forced to hold the convention at the White House due to a pandemic, and we recovered.
This pearl crushing hyperventilating was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from ClearChoice Dental, and Nutz. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about what they’re funding.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s America's Choice 2020: Republican National Convention
August 27, 2020
11:36:22 p.m. Eastern(…)
JAKE TAPPER: The President spoke for 70 minutes 11 seconds, not as much as his 75-minute speech four years ago, but still these are the two longest acceptance speeches in decades. Those wondering, Joe Biden spoke for just under 25 minutes when he accepted the Democratic nomination.
And you mentioned how this something Joe Biden does not have. He does not have the ability to speak at the White House or have the fireworks over the nation’s capital like this. We should also point out that no American president has ever accepted the nomination of his party from the White House. It was thought to be inappropriate, a violation, perhaps even, of the Hatch Act to have White House individuals working on such an event clearly marked for a political event.
But once again, President Trump shattering norms, standards, perhaps even laws by holding such an event. You saw this evening it and the last four nights the view of the world from planet Trump. The view of the world as the President wishes it were. He talked about tonight how nine million jobs have been created in three months without mentioning, of course, that in the previous two months before that, 22 million had been lost in the reception caused by the pandemic.
He has talked about the world and the pandemic as if almost it is over in terms of the event and how he's holding this event. Pandemic event, nobody was social distancing with a crowd of 1,500, 2,000 individuals, very few masks, no mass testing. It was as if we were not in the middle of a deadly pandemic. Which is, of course, what the President wishes were the case, but it is not the case.
And that is one of the points that I think's important about the speech and I think is important the last four days. There has been a completely filtered President Trump. We have seen the world through his eyes and through the eyes of his advisors.
He has not really spoken extemporaneously. There were some ad-libs this evening in his speech. But he pretty much kept to the teleprompter. The other times we've seen him during this week, he has been on tape or he has been quiet when they came to the speeches of Vice President Pence and First Lady Melania Trump.
That is the Trump that White House officials and campaign officials wish they had all the time, one who is not sending tweets that upset people, one who is not making comments that upset people when he ad-libs. And I think it's important to note that I do expect that there might be some kind of narrowing in the polls after this unfiltered -- rather filtered week, but we still have many days to go and we'll see if the President is able to stay as disciplined, Dana.
(…)
ABBY PHILLIP: I do want to note, quickly, that as President Trump was speaking, you could literally hear in the background the protests that are happening just outside of the White House. You know, hundreds probably people who gathered in Black Lives Matter Plaza right above Lafayette Square and near the White House to protest. It was audible from the South Lawn where all of these festivities are going on.
One of the lines in President Trump's speech was about this stark divide. And he really leaned into that tonight. That was a core part of the speech and, you know, it is all about trying to clarify to the American public who they want them to think Joe Biden is.
(…)
TAPPER: Yeah, I agree. Can we just take one minute to acknowledge how untraditional, to use one word for it, the scene we're witnessing right now is? The President has just accepted the nomination of his party from the White House, which has never been done before. And now, we're not hearing Happy Days Are Here Again, we're hearing an opera singer Hallelujah.
Once again, I think, demonstrating the degree to which President Trump considers himself a showman, whether it is reality television or president. This is certainly not the typical convention. And while, of course, because of the pandemic, that's generally the case – [trails off]
PHILLIP: Jake, can I just mention that --
TAPPER: Yeah.
PHILLIP: --this is exactly what you would hear at the end of a Trump rally. If you were at a Trump rally.
(…)
WOLF BLITZER: I don't think we've ever seen a political rally like this on the South Lawn of the White House. I spent a lot of years covering the presidents over these many decades, and it’s fair to say, I've never seen anything like this before, the acceptance speech on the South Lawn of the White House, 2,000 invited guests; sitting very close together, by the way, most of them not wearing masks, even in the midst of a pandemic. And as I said, a blistering attack.
At one point the President said if Joe Biden is elected, ‘your vote will decide whether we protect law abiding Americans or whether we give free reign to anarchists, agitators and criminals who threaten our citizen.’ Then he said, ‘and this election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.’
Jake, he's suggesting that if Biden is elected this country will turn into a disaster. It will be a socialist, if not a Marxist, country. The economy will collapse and everything we know about America will go away.
TAPPER: Right. It's kind of preposterous.
Although, I should note, the economy has collapsed. It collapsed a few months ago because of the pandemic and we're still clawing our way out of it, which is one of the huge complications the President Trump has when he is making this pitch. Four years ago, he promised that as of his inauguration violence in the cities was going to end. Now, he’s making the same basic argument four years later having been president.
(…)
DANA BASH: Jake, I think what you're saying is so true. It's bizarre to be having this conversation as we're listening to an opera singer sing Ave Maria on the South Lawn of White House. I mean, this is remarkable in every sense of the word.
(…)
PHILLIP: God Bless America being played with the entire Trump family, which I should say we rarely see the entire Trump family all together at the White House. They're all at the podium.
This is the President putting on a big show for the country in a way that a lot of people will say, and we should acknowledge, is unethical, the use of the White House in this way for a completely political event. And, you know, I don't know that we'll ever -- as Jake likes to say, I don't know that we'll ever come back from this. This is a norm that's been broken. And now I think future presidents might be looking at the White House very differently in terms of how it can be used.
(…)
