The mainstream media’s ongoing crusade against President Donald Trump hit yet another new low on Wednesday afternoon, August 23, when Wolf Blitzer, host of the Cable News Network’s weekday Situation Room program, let a Democratic guest slam the Republican occupant of the White House as “out of control” and compared Trump’s attacks on the press to tactics used by Nazi Germany.
Blitzer teed up the attack by asking Rep. John Garamendi of California: “So we all saw one version of President Trump last night in Phoenix. We saw another version today. How do you reconcile that?”
The Democrat responded: “There's no way to reconcile it, except in Trump's own words. … [I]f you want to know what a person believes, listen to them when they're not using a teleprompter. That's basically what Trump believes, and we saw two different displays.”
He added:
One, Trump using a teleprompter; very nice words, very conciliatory words, almost certainly written by somebody other than Trump.
And then the night before, we saw the real Trump, a man that is totally, totally out of control and engaged in rhetoric that slams the press which, by the way, happens to be the very first thing that a dictator will do to secure his position.
“When you suggest the words that the president is doing, what dictators try to do in stifling or criticizing or blasting the news media,” Blitzer stated in a softball statement, “just elaborate a second on that. I want you to be precise.”
“I'll be very precise,” Garamendi responded. “If one were to look at Nazi Germany, that was the very early part of their tenure, ... to delegitimize the press. They constantly attacked the press.”
“And that's exactly what this president is doing,” he continued. Trump “is using a tactic that is not only in that particular country, but around the world to delegitimize, to muzzle or to, in many cases, just destroy the free press.”
Blitzer then asked: "Well, just to follow up, Congressman, because those are strong words: Are you suggesting the president wants to be a dictator?”
The Democratic guest replied: “He's certainly power hungry. There's no doubt about that. … He certainly wants to push the Congress aside. He's already taken into the judicial system by going after federal judges, and it goes on and on.”
“This man is clearly not fit to be president,” Garamendi stated. “This man does not have the demeanor or the temperament to be president, but he is our president.”
The host then lobbed another softball question to his guest: “When you say he's unfit to be president, elaborate on that. What do you mean by that: mentally unfit, politically unfit? Talk a little bit about that.”
“Well, I don't like his politics,” Garamendi answered, “but that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is his temperament. We saw what happened at the now very famous press conference a week ago at the Trump Tower where he was totally out of control.”
He continued:
And last night at the rally, with one lie after another, with one demonizing the press in one word and then the next word tearing into his political allies that he has to have for the passage of any legislation, [Arizona GOP Senator John] McCain and other senators.
I mean, this is not a -- this is not a person that is thinking rationally about what's important. He's just flying off the handle, and that is extremely dangerous.
“The word of the president is absolutely essential, not just in domestic politics and with the Congress, but more importantly, with our allies and our opponents around the world,” the Democrat continued. “When the president says something, people have to rely on that as being not only factual, but also that is a clear demonstration of [his] view.”
“And so when he ripped into, what, ‘fire and fury’ two weeks ago, what did that mean?” he asked. “Everybody thought it might mean nuclear war. Well, perhaps it did; we don't know. And that is what creates the uncertainty.”
“What is the opponent, in this case [North Korea leader] Kim Jong-un, to think?” Garamendi added. “Is he coming after me with nuclear weapons? If so, how do I respond? Do I respond first while I have the weapons?”
“So that's the kind of uncertainty that this president is creating in international affairs, in security issues and just the chaos of Washington is every day getting worse,” the guest concluded.
Judging from this interview, Blitzer views his role as the person not to ask hard questions, but someone who provides liberal guests with the opportunity to expand on what they’ve just said. And if that includes remarks about Nazi Germany, then the CNN host apparently believes he has done his job.
