To counter vicious leftist anti-Trump protests on Thursday night, CNN’s Don Lemon brought on liberals who made excuses for it or blamed Trump. Democrat pundit Bob Beckel blamed Trump: “It reflects badly on people who are against Trump but you'll get that kind of thing when you get inflammatory statements like Trump makes and you're going to find people in any group of protesters, you're going to have a percentage of people who are just very angry and out of control.”
Trump backer Kayleigh McEnany was on hand to disagree, but CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin protested “Let’s not get carried away” in denouncing the protests, so what if one guy got his hat knocked off? “One person getting hurt is unacceptable, but it's one person.”
What if that one person was Jeffrey Toobin? The Golden Rule goes out the window when the leftists get out of control and a “percentage of people” get violent. McEnany shot back "The last guy who got his hat knocked off and picked it up and tried to get it back was beaten to a pulp and was taken off the scene with blood rushing down his face." To the transcript, thanks to Curtis Houck:
DON LEMON: Bob, what is the objective, what is the point to intimidating Trump supporters? If you don't support Trump, I understand, a peaceful protest is in order. Burning the American flag, jumping on cars, I mean, what is going on here?
BOB BECKEL: Well, I mean -- what's going on is not good. This reminds me back in the anti-Vietnam War days when some of us were peacefully protesting and others were burning flags and jumping on cars. It reflects badly on people who are against Trump but you'll get that kind of thing when you get inflammatory statements like Trump makes and you're going to find people in any group of protesters, you're going to have a percentage of people who are just very angry and out of control. That's what you see and it's newsworthy. That's the most important thing, I think. The cameras focus on them and they know that. If it were up to Hillary Clinton, I'm sure she would prefer not to have them there.
DON LEMON: Kayleigh, hold on. Let's put up - there's a tweet from John Podesta, who's the chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign. Let's put that up and John Podesta says "Violence against supporters of any candidate has no place in this election." Go ahead, Kayleigh.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: I'm really pleased to see John Podesta come out and say that because I've been saying for awhile we want to hear from - I want to hear from Clinton and Sanders for this to stop because these are protesters who come from the left and I have to disagree with Bob that Trump can be blamed for this. Trump has put forward policy positions that have been summed up by many in the media oversimplified to be racist or xenophobic or what have you but nothing Donald Trump has said is that and nothing he said can be responsible for third-party actions of people jumping on cars, beating a Trump supporter to a pulp, burning American flags. There's no excuse for that ever and words cannot and should not provoke.
LEMON: Jeffrey, unless you want to jump in here, we'll move on.
JEFFREY TOOBIN: Well, I'd just like to say - I mean, let's just not get carried away. You know, this - in the United States, this kind of protest has gone on for hundreds of years. It's not that big a deal, a bunch of people like the guy got his hat knocked off? I mean, you know, he shouldn't have his hat knocked off, but let's not, you know -
MCENANY: The last guy who got his hat knocked off and picked it up and tried to get it back was beaten to a pulp and was taken off the scene with blood rushing down his face. That's what happened to the last guy who tried to get his hat back I think was in Costa Mesa, California.
TOOBIN: Yeah, I mean, there have been tens of thousands of people at these rallies. One person getting hurt is unacceptable but it's one person. I just don't think anybody should, you know, can think that this is a bigger deal than it is.
Lemon then just moved on. Considering CNN's own reporting that people were punched, people were egged, and people were burning Trump-backer hats, he certainly could have thrown Toobin a harder pitch than "unless you want to jump in here, we'll move on."
This same Jeffrey “Not a Big Deal” Toobin was freaking out to Anderson Cooper on Thursday night that Trump would say Latino judge Gonzalo Curiel has a conflict of interest in his Trump University case because he belongs to (and was honored by) the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, which advocates against racial profiling and for “undocumented” immigrants and has a political action committee.
Toobin proclaimed this was just a "social organization," somehow nonpolitical. "It is not a conflict of interest. Donald Trump can say what he wants, but what he is saying about the judge is completely wrong under all of the current rules of ethics."
PS: Notice the CNN chyron only says "PROTESTS AT TRUMP'S EVENT," as if words like "violent" wouldn't fit on screen.
