On Tuesday's New Day, CNN political analyst David Gregory inadvertently admitted to living in a liberal social bubble by declaring that he had never met anybody who supports Donald Trump's proposal to build a wall on the border with Mexico -- which the CNN analyst and former NBC anchor derided as a "stupid wall."
After playing a clip of Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren mocking the border wall in her speech at the Democratic National Convention, CNN co-host Chris Cuomo picked up on her mockery and laughed as he posed:
Now, the truest thing she said there, David, is that wall ain't getting built if Congress doesn't want it built, obviously, which is an interesting little nod to the political reality. But how effective is that?
Gregory seemed to be channeling former film critic Pauline Kael -- known for admitting that she only knew one person who voted for Richard Nixon -- as he began his response: "Well, first of all, it is a stupid wall. I haven't run across anybody -- conservative or Democrat -- who thinks the wall is a good idea."
But recent polling on the subject found that public support for building such a wall on the border stood at 38 percent -- which may not be a majority, but it is nowhere near zero percent. Gregory's social contacts must be limited indeed if he has managed not to meet even a single person who thinks differently than he does on the issue.
He then went on to sing the praises of Senator Warren's speech in support of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Tuesday, July 26, New Day on CNN:
5:23 a.m. ET
CHRIS CUOMO: Now, the truest thing she said there, David, is that wall ain't getting built if Congress doesn't want it built, obviously, which is an interesting little nod to the political reality. But how effective is that?
DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, it is a stupid wall. I haven't run across anybody -- conservative or Democrat -- who thinks the wall is a good idea. I also thought some of the criticism of Warren, I was just thinking, "Oh, well, you know, she wasn't as strong as she could be."
I actually thought she played it just right. She has a lot of detractors, but no one is better at dropping the hammer on Trump than she is. But this is a primetime audience. This is not a political rally per se. I thought she modulated her tone pretty well. She's the most important progressive supporter of Hillary Clinton, more important than Bernie Sanders.
CUOMO: Why?
GREGORY: Because I think actually her support is deeper and wider than Sanders' is among progressives. So I think she can offer better testimony for Hillary Clinton than he can or even is willing to do. And so I thought she played that pretty well last night.
