CNN took a break Monday from covering the drop in the Dow to blast President Trump for his use of the word “treasonous” to describe Democrats at a rally in Cincinnati.
Former NY GOP Gubernatorial candidateRob Astorino pointed out that the Democrats have an intense hatred for President Trump as evidenced by the refusal of many elected Democrats to attend his inauguration. Angela Rye, Astorino’s liberal counterpart on the panel, said that “there is something dangerously wrong with this President” and argued that it was “high time and overtime that he gets a psychological evaluation.”
When Astorino dared to suggest that Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters (Calif.) might benefit from a psychological evaluation herself, Rye chastised Astorino: “That is my mentor and you will not disrespect her that way ever.” With divisive figures like Maxine Waters amassing such a large following, it’s no wonder we live in such a polarized country.
Throughout the entirety of the heated exchange, Rye repeated the talking points of her mentor, painting the President as a racist and a bigot in addition to stressing the importance of bringing impeachment proceedings against him. Rye's juvenile behavior included dismissing any criticism of Maxine Waters and President Obama as “false equivalencies.”
Later, Astorino said that there were “a lot of things Obama said in the campaign that he regrets and did in office.” Rye pressed Astorino to come up with one thing President Obama said that sounded that racist and toxic. Astorino did not say this but candidate Obama’s “guns and religion” comment that he used to refer to small-town Americans during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary might fall into the “toxic” category.
Rye concluded the interview by saying that “Donald Trump is dangerous and toxic for this country” and dubbed him “mentally unstable." Rye’s statements prove beyond a reasonable doubt that #TheResistance will not sail off quietly into the sunset anytime soon, even if the Trump Presidency becomes a smashing success.
To see the full transcript from CNN on February 5, click "expand."
ROB ASTORINO: I do, yes. I think it’s – I mean it is so toxic right now on both sides of the aisle. And for the Democrats, a lot of it is, you know, a specific hate towards Donald Trump, the person. And sometimes you also have to say the Presidency or the office of the President. When they were at the inauguration saying we’re not even going to go. He didn’t even get started yet and they were boycotting his inauguration. Let’s remember that.
ANGELA RYE: Do you remember why?
ASTORINO: So this is a continuation of what’s been going on.
RYE: Do you remember why?
ASTORINO: Does it matter?
RYE: Yeah, it absolutely matters and I’ll tell you why it matters. It matters for all of those people who are brown who were called drug dealers and rapists. It matters for all of those people–
ASTORINO: He didn’t say all.
RYE: It doesn’t matter if you say all when you say Mexicans are drug dealers and rapists, you have a problem. That’s how he started his campaign. That was the day of his campaign announcement. This is a man that started talking about building a great, beautiful wall to keep people out of the country. So when you build a campaign built on hate-filled rhetoric, built on bigotry, discrimination and racism, I’m not going to applaud you and people who look like me aren’t going to applaud you and people who have heart all across this country who don’t look like me aren’t going to applaud you. Now, going back to your remarks about Congresswoman Maxine Waters, she did issue a State of the Union rebuttal. Unfortunately for you and what you might believe, there are several people all over this country who believe just like Congresswoman Waters believes, that there is something dangerously wrong with this President. That it’s high time and overtime that he gets a psychological evaluation. That it’s high time and overtime...
ASTORINO: I would say the same thing about Maxine Waters.
RYE: And I wish you would. That is my mentor and you will not disrespect her in that way ever. But let me just go back to this point. It is so very important that a Commander-in-Chief behave as such, it is so very important that we can rely on the words that come out of his mouth and we cannot. It is so very important that when he talks about black unemployment that since it’s plummeted it is also now increased. So I wonder if he’s going to take credit for that as well. It’s time for this President to be honest.
ANDERSON COOPER: But Angela, I mean Rob, what Rob was saying, was that it wasn’t, it wasn’t helpful for the President to call Democrats treasonous just as, you know rhetoric on the other side, talking about impeachment is not necessarily helpful and certainly, Angela, there are a lot of Democrats who feel like the talk of impeachment is not necessarily helpful.
RYE: It may not be helpful Anderson but the reality of it is, there are a number of people who have called into looking into impeachment. That is a talking point on the left, certainly, that works very, very well because people have a number of questions and every time Twitter thumbs picks his account back up and opens it up and says something else, he is the one that proves the reason why folks are looking into this. That’s not on Congresswoman Waters. I think it’s also time for us to stop with the false equivalency.
COOPER: Rob, I want you to go ahead and respond.
ASTORINO: Angela, I would say that’s as crazy and over the top–
RYE: I’m sure you would.
ASTORINO: –the impeachment now, as Obama not being born in the United States. You and Democrats and most people said, you know, that’s a little out of the mainstream and we don’t believe that.
RYE: No, it’s not a little out of the mainstream, it was nuts. And he was the chief-the reason why...
ASTORINO: So is nuts about impeachment right now.
COOPER: Let Rob finish.
RYE: He was the spokesperson for it.
ASTORINO: Angela, so is nuts about impeachment right now. Remember the moment the President was inaugurated, a lot of Democrats were saying we’re going to impeach him. We’ll figure out what, we’ll get to that, somewhere somehow but we’re going to talk about impeachment. And I think when you start out in a defensive mode there and everyone is attacking you, the campaign is one thing. There were a lot of things Hillary Clinton said that she regrets. There were a lot of things Obama said in the campaign that he regrets and did in office.
RYE: Name one thing. Name one thing that sounded that racist and that toxic. Name one thing from Barack Obama that sounded like that, please.
ASTORINO: First of all, well, race relations were at the worst under President Obama according to polls all across...
RYE: Because he was black.
ASTORINO: No, that’s ridic...
RYE: That is absolutely the case.
ASTORINO: That’s the only argument Democrats are using now, they can’t go on facts so it’s just let’s fall back on race.
RYE: No because it’s the truth. You don’t like it but it hurts.
COOPER: Let’s not relitigate that...
ASTORINO: It’s absolutely true.
COOPER: Let’s not relitigate it.
RYE: I don’t want to relitigate it either, Anderson, but what happens is people continue to try to draw, to try to draw these parallels that don’t exist. The bottom line is Donald Trump is dangerous and toxic for this country. He’s dangerous and toxic every time he tweets about his nuclear button being bigger. I mean come on. This is someone who is not stable and I’ve been saying it from the beginning and I will continue to say it until somebody looks into his mental stability. It is a problem and that is where we are.
COOPER: Okay Rob...I hear you. Just quickly Rob, I want you to respond and then I want to get back to the Dow.
ASTORINO: Well, using words like dangerous...
RYE: He is dangerous.
ASTORINO: And mentally unstable.
RYE: He is.
ASTORINO: Those are words that are reserved under unique times. Now I say he should lay off his...
RYE: It’s a unique time.
ASTORINO: ...give his thumb a break and not go on Twitter as much. I agree with that. But you know, you’ve got to be careful when you start using words like that. If we had used, and I never, I didn’t agree with Obama but if I said he was dangerous and mentally unstable.
RYE: He wasn’t.
ASTORINO: If I had said that, what would your response have been?
RYE: My response would be that that’s another false equivalency and it’s not true.
