As per usual, the only time CNN treats a Republican with respect, is when they are bashing President Trump. That’s why CNN couldn’t contain their excitement for the impending rant against President Trump by a member of his own party, early Wednesday morning.
CNN Newsroom’s John Berman, Poppy Harlow and Brian Stelter eagerly reported that Senator Jeff Flake would soon be unleashing his anti-Trump tirade on the Senate floor at 10am EST, and paired with the scathing op-ed in the Washington Post this morning by Senator John McCain, the Republican “resistance” against Trump was a legitimate referendum against Trump's "poison."
“In just moments, something pretty extraordinary is about to happen on the Senate floor. A sitting Republican will walk out and will denounce the president. Specifically, his attacks on the media,” anchor Poppy Harlow gushed.
Berman then brought on Senior Media Correspondent and host of Reliable Sources Brian Stelter to further legitimize Flake’s whiny tirade against the president’s hostile relationship with the press, quoting the pre-released excerpt which made headlines Monday for comparing Trump to Stalin.
Quoting Flake, Stelter explained how Stalin used that term to silence his enemies “for the purpose of annihilating such individuals who disagreed with the supreme leader.” Then he crossed the too-easy bridge to Trump:
So Flake here is trying to make the point that language has consequences. That words have power. When you deride the press as the enemy of the people or as “fake news” that produces “fake stories” it has an impact on the public at large.
Harlow then compared Flake to McCain, touting his op-ed on Trump’s “threat” to press freedom, in the Washington Post this morning.
Senator John McCain has an op-ed in The Washington Post this morning backing up Flake. Obviously the reason it’s there, this morning ahead of his speech. Here's what he writes. ‘Whether Trump knows it or not, these efforts are being closely watched by foreign leader who are already using his words as cover while they silence and shutter one of the key pillars of our democracy.’ As you know Brian, he goes on to say last year was one of the most dangerous for journalists.
Stelter claimed that Trump’s use of “fake news” had a dangerous “effect” in other countries, where dozens of journalists have been jailed. He cited the openly biased group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and their pinning the problem of authoritarian countries’ treatment of press freedom, as Donald Trump’s issue.
“That's not happening in the United States. It's happening in other countries with dictatorial leaders. The point that McCain is trying to make, Trump's words have impact in other countries,” Stelter touted.
“Yeah give them a pass! Give some of these dictators a pass,” Poppy Harlow agreed.
In the next hour, Stelter gushed again about how “important” Flake’s rebellion against Trump’s “poison” was.
“It's also an important moment because Flake is trying to get people to focus on what the impact is of the daily drip drip drip of Trump's poisonous words about the media,” he gushed.
But Stelter wasn’t the only one in awe. After Flake’s speech, Berman came back on to CNN to praise the rant as a “defense of the truth.”
“This wasn’t a defense of the press as we thought it might be going in. This was a defense of truth. This was the president vs. truth, Jeff Flake standing up for the truth,” Berman gushed, as Harlow agreed.
She noted how Flake compared Trump to dictators like Bashar al-Assad, who killed thousands of his own citizens, and denied reports of their deaths. “In other countries these kinds of words...are backed up by actions,” Stelter warned.
“What Jeff Flake is trying to say here, that the culmination of all of those insults and slurs and the accumulation of all of it does damage --” he began.
“Does actual danger,” Harlow eagerly jumped in.
“Does damage to the democracy,” Stelter agreed. “And I think he’s articulating what a lot of Americans feel,” he gushed, apparently believing most Americans were on the press’s side.
Stelter agreed with Berman that the main takeaway from Flake’s speech was that Congress needed to “stand up” to President Trump’s “assault on the truth.”
