As Tuesday's New Day devoted a segment to the Congressional Black Caucus planning on hanging up a painting in a Capitol Building hallway in which a National Congressional Art Competition winner depicted police officers as pigs, CNN co-host Alisyn Camerota at one point wondered if guest Ben Ferguson was being "politically correct" by arguing that the painting should not be displayed publicly.
After co-host Chris Cuomo set up the segment by recalling that California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter had removed the painting and sent it to Missouri Democratic Rep. Lacy Clay because the painting was from his district, leading CBC members to plan on getting together and hanging it back up, the right-leaning Ferguson argued against hanging the painting in a public hallway, although he found it acceptable for the Congressman to display it inside his own personal office if he wished.
Camerota then pressed the conservative CNN commentator and talk radio host as she followed up:
Yeah, Ben, I mean, I just want to give you a little bit more context to see if you still feel this way. This was the winner of the National Congressional Art Competition. They hold this every year for decades who -- they vote around the country. This was a high schooler who depicted this from Missouri. And whoever wins, it's from every state. And that painting is put up in the halls of Congress.
She added:
This is how it's worked for decades. So I get that you don't like the painting, but it sounds like you're being a little politically correct to say that any painting that you don't like or that depicts a controversial image should not be hung. That's not the tradition or the spirit of this.
As Ferguson insisted that the painting should not have been hung in the public hallway regardless of tradition, the two went back and forth:
FERGUSON: Well, I also think if you look back at past winners, I highly doubt you've ever had a policeman depicted as a pig before in any one of these.
CAMEROTA: Right, so you want to censor the artwork if you don't like the subject matter.
FERGUSON: I don't have a problem with this hanging in the Congressman's office. That is his decision. That is his right with his art he is in favor of.
CAMEROTA: That's not the rules of this competition. The rules of this competition are that the national winner hangs in the halls of Congress publicly.
Notably, when Maryland Rep. and Congressional Black Caucus member Elijah Cummings appeared as a guest the previous hour with Chris Cuomo, the CNN co-host did not bring up the issue with him for a chance to press both sides from a contrarian point of view.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the segment from the Tuesday, January 10, New Day on CNN:
8:49 a.m. ET
BEN FERGUSON: If this congressman wants this painting to be up in his own office, that's fine. That's his right to do that. If he wants to sit there and depict police officers as pigs and he thinks that's what his constituency wants him to believe or to stand for, he should do that in his own office.
But when you put this out there inside the Capitol Building where the Capitol Police and others are walking around, the government should not sanction an artwork in Washington that depicts police officers as pigs. Let's remember, police officers are shot and killed. We have many of them that are African-American that are shot and killed in the line of duty. This has no place in the halls of Washington. It's an embarrassment.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Yeah, Ben, I mean, I just want to give you a little bit more context to see if you still feel this way. This was the winner of the National Congressional Art Competition. They hold this every year for decades who -- they vote around the country. This was a high schooler who depicted this from Missouri. And whoever wins, it's from every state. And that painting is put up in the halls of Congress.
This is how it's worked for decades. So I get that you don't like the painting, but it sounds like you're being a little politically correct to say that any painting that you don't like or that depicts a controversial image should not be hung. That's not the tradition or the spirit of this.
FERGUSON: Well, I also think if you look back at past winners, I highly doubt you've ever had a policeman depicted as a pig before in any one of these.
CAMEROTA: Right, so you want to censor the artwork if you don't like the subject matter.
FERGUSON: I don't have a problem with this hanging in the Congressman's office. That is his decision. That is his right with his art he is in favor of.
CAMEROTA: That's not the rules of this competition. The rules of this competition are that the national winner hangs in the halls of Congress publicly.
FERGUSON: Then I think you should relook at the rules and decide that you don't allow offensive artwork. Imagine if someone would have won this contest and it would have been a negative image of the President of the United States of America, whether it be Barack Obama or Donald Trump. Should that be hanging in the halls of Congress? This is also an attack on law enforcement. And this goes back to the Congressional Black Caucus.
What are they doing in Washington? What are the standing for? They are literally taking time today out of when they're supposed to be doing the work of the people -- taxpayers pay their salaries -- to put up a piece of artwork that attacks the police and depicts them as pigs. That is not a message that we want to be sending to young people.
