Wednesday’s CNN Tonight had no chance of surpassing the hall of shame lunacy showcased the day before following the Trump rally calling out the President’s mental health. However, host Don Lemon briefly lashed out at people who called him out, spreading lies that critics should “know better” and not make “a political point” by saying Trump’s sanity is being questioned.
“Yeah and I think that, you know, when — when people criticize and say, oh, they are questioning the President's sanity and all that, they know better. They're just — they’re doing it just, you know, just because to make a political point of some sort,” Lemon whined in a segment with faux Republican Mike Murphy and The Atlantic’s James Fallows.
As a reminder, here’s a small snippet of what Lemon said about Trump on Tuesday:
He's unhinged, it's embarrassing and I don't mean for us, the media because he went after us, but for the country. This is who we elected President of the United States. A man who is so petty that he has to go after people who he deems to be his enemy, like an imaginary friend of a six-year-old. His speech was without thought, it was without reason, it was devoid of facts, it was devoid of wisdom. There was no gravitas. There was no sanity. He was like a child blaming a sibling on something else....A man clearly wounded by the rational people who are abandoning him in droves, meaning those business people and the people in Washington now who are questioning his fitness for office and whether he is stable. A man backed into a corner it seems by circumstances beyond his control and beyond his understanding....This petty, this small, a person who's supposed to pull the country together?
Murphy was supposed to be Lemon’s Yes Man, but he didn’t go along as he argued that he doesn’t “believe the crazy Trump theory” but rather he’s just “a narcissist” with “an impulse control problem.”
This didn’t sit well with Lemon, who pushed back but also tried to not suggest Trump’s insane or mentally ill (as he did last night):
LEMON: Yeah, but you know, when someone says unfit or —
MURPHY: — but it's his crazy rhetoric has been worse than his actions which have been more rational.
LEMON: But that’s what you — you’re smart. You know that when someone says — when people say unfit they don't necessarily mean crazy. They just mean unfit for the job.
Fallows bolstered Lemon’s case about fitness by explaining that it means “being aware that every single second of your life, every utterance you put out, every word you say or don't say, every phrase has consequences around the world and in this country.”
The problem is that this wasn’t the only accusation Lemon and his rowdy leftist friends like Maria Cardona, Symone Sanders, Brian Stelter, and Rick Wilson tried to do on Tuesday (along with CNN colleague Ana Navarro).
As exhibited by the works of both this writer and Nicholas Fondacaro, CNN Tonight absolutely pushed the notion that Trump’s mental illness and instability have caused the American people to be “scared” about what might happen to them.
With that being an absurdly small Cliffnotes version of Tuesday night, Lemon then made the claim that those saying the President’s sanity has been questioned are partisans trying to score points. Lemon seemingly walked to Tuesday’s ledge throughout the show, but never went off.
While speaking to foreign policy expert David Rohde, Lemon stood up for former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper following his clicks-bonanza interview fretting about Trump’s mental stability:
DAVID ROHDE: Well, startling, frightening and everything else. He used another phrase, though, that — I don't — I don’t like the whole that he's crazy argument. I think he knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s being incredibly divisive for political reasons but something that Clapper said was that he’s —
LEMON: Listen, listen. Before you go there, he did clarify and said he didn't mean crazy meaning mentally but he was just saying fit for office in his actions and whether he was prepared to do the job.
Here’s the relevant transcript from August 23's CNN Tonight with Don Lemon:
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon
August 23, 2017
10:04 p.m. Eastern
DON LEMON: So Nia, he says there is no place for bigotry or hate on Monday, then he uses dog whistles and goes on attack by Tuesday and today he is back on teleprompter calling for unity. He is all over the place.
(....)
10:07 p.m. Eastern
LEMON: What did you think of the former director of national intelligence coming out and saying that, David?
DAVID ROHDE: Well, startling, frightening and everything else. He used another phrase, though, that — I don't — I don’t like the whole that he's crazy argument. I think he knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s being incredibly divisive for political reasons but something that Clapper said was that he’s —
LEMON: Listen, listen. Before you go there, he did clarify and said he didn't mean crazy meaning mentally but he was just saying fit for office in his actions and whether he was prepared to do the job.
(....)
10:11 p.m. Eastern
LEMON: Let's talk about this new Quinnipiac University poll, Nia. 68% of voters say the president is not level headed. Does that number surprise you? What do you think? What does that mean?
(....)
10:13 p.m. Eastern
LEMON [TO ROHDE]: 68 percent of voters say that the President is not level headed and people are now saying it on camera. Not as many people as who say it off camera, especially Republicans who say they worry about the President's fitness. I mean, you heard there was a recording between, you know, two lawmakers. I think it was Susan Collins and I forget who is the second lawmaker was, saying that they were — you know, saying things I would not repeat. What do you think of that poll?
(....)
10:15 p.m. Eastern
LEMON: Garrett, I want to ask you about this because this was startling last night when you hear the former top Intel official like James Clapper voicing concerns about the President's fitness and access codes to nuclear codes and his access to nuclear codes. None of this is theoretical when you consider North Korea if he wanted to launch a strike, how would this work? Can he unilaterally do this? Can he act unilaterally?
GARRETT GRAFF: Not only can he, it's actually the way that the system is supposed to work. This is a Cold War system that was designed to respond to having tens of thousands of nuclear weapons between the Soviet Union and the United States on a hair trigger alert.
(....)
10:29 p.m. Eastern
MIKE MURPHY: I don't believe the crazy Trump theory. I believe he’s a narcissist. I believe he has an impulse control problem and I think he’s most insecure person I've ever seen in public life which is something that attracts a lot of insecure people. So, he’s a record setter
LEMON: Yeah, but you know, when someone says unfit or —
MURPHY: — but it's his crazy rhetoric has been worse than his actions which have been more rational.
LEMON: But that’s what you — you’re smart. You know that when someone says — when people say unfit they don't necessarily mean crazy. They just mean unfit for the job.
MURPHY: Exactly. Yeah, Look, I've said unqualified by temperament, knowledge, or character to be president of the United States. I've said it publicly — I’ve said it for a long time. I believe that. But that — you know, it's — it's easy to get down the slippery slide into the nuclear madman stuff and everything. I'm not sure that is accurate but he is unfit because he does not understand the role of the President is not only to be the head of government in our system but head of state which means you have a responsibility to be kind of a reference clock for proper behavior in defending American values and either he doesn't understand that or doesn't care. So, that's why we have this insult comic communication added with total disregard for the truth that has become such a toxic stain on this presidency.
LEMON: Well —
FALLOWS: Don?
LEMON: Go ahead.
JAMES FALLOWS: Yeah. Just to take that point one step further here is a specific example of what fitness for office means. There’s a skill that you have as a live performer which Donald Trump really has which is knowing the pulse of a crowd, the mood of the crowd and he plays to it really well. We saw that last night. He was working the crowd for cheers. Fitness for being President involves being aware that every single second of your life, every utterance you put out, every word you say or don't say, every phrase has consequences around the world and in this country and so, his entire inability to even imagine that, I think that is a kind of fitness that he’s not getting better at.
LEMON: Yeah and I think that, you know, when — when people criticize and say, oh, they are questioning the President's sanity and all that, they know better. They're just — they’re doing it just, you know, just because to make a political point of some sort.
