For some time, it’s been evident that much of the liberal media have come down with cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome. One sign that it’s grown is when someone starts throwing out words like “crisis,” “impeachment,” “constitutional crisis,” and “conspiracy theory” to either describe our discourse or something the President or his supporters may have said.
Wednesday’s CNN Tonight showcased how host Don Lemon has been grappling with it. Suffice to say, it’s not going well as he informed viewers that “[o]ur country is in the middle of an extreme crisis, a crisis that threatens our foundation, a crises that threatens the values we all hold — hold dear, a crisis created to blind us to the truth” caused by Trump.
Lemon continued, staring into the camera and warning that Trump’s working to “destroy the very existence of a shared truth in this country” by intentionally “lying to us over and over and over and over again” whether it’s on television or Twitter.
Either way, Lemon’s melodramatic screed was only just getting started, stating as supposed fact that Trump’s “undermining our nation's traditions and norms in real-time” with perhaps “the biggest lie of all” being that the Trump campaign was spied on in the early stages of the Russia probe during the 2016 election.
Relying heavily on the incredibly dishonest-yet-heralded James Clapper to refute the President, Lemon cautioned his masses with rhetoric that could have sent people to their doomsday shelters (click “expand” to read more):
This is not just an angry President popping off, this is a deliberate and coordinated effort to save his presidency, to cast doubt on the Russian investigation by repeating a lie. Repeating it every chance he gets and that repetition is a key part of the strategy here because if you hear him say the same thing over and over and over, it gets into your head. You may even start to wonder if there's some truth to it and that's exactly what the President and his allies want, to put that question in the back of your mind. It is a strategy he's used since he first stormed into the national political stage with his utterly false and racist birther claims that President Barack Obama was not born in this country.
Lemon read an excerpt from anti-Trump Republican and Arizona Senator Jeff Flake again riding his high horse in a speech at Harvard before concluding that this notion that the country is in a “crisis” is not up for debate because, you know, Facts First...or something.
“Very strong words, but this is not just about talk, this is about facts. Facts do matter, the truth matters, and the truth is under daily assault from the President of the United States and that is a crisis and that is the truth,” he proclaimed.
To see the relevant transcript from May 23's CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, click “expand.”
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon
May 23, 2018
10:00 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE #1: Don’s Take; The President Is Lying to Us]
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE #2: Don’s Take; America is in the middle of a crisis]
DON LEMON: An important and informative town hall with Nancy Pelosi tonight. But I want to go to the big picture now for you. Take a moment to do that and this is really important. Our country is in the middle of an extreme crisis, a crisis that threatens our foundation, a crises that threatens the values we all hold — hold dear, a crisis created to blind us to the truth. Indeed, to destroy the very existence of a shared truth in this country. The President of the United States is lying to us over and over and over and over again. We've all seen it with our very own eyes and we heard it with our own ears. He relies on our airwaves to play the lies to you and uses the airwaves of other networks to amplify those lies and pile more and more upon them. He uses Twitter to recklessly tweet them out to you, to all of us, telegraphing his every thought, including to those who mean this country harm, undermining our nation's traditions and norms in real-time. But, what we've seen and heard from the President in the past five days may be the biggest lie of all. Repeatedly and with no facts to back him up, making the outrageous claim that the so-called deep state spied on his campaign, he did it again today.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE #2: Don’s Take; President’s Unproved Claim of So-Called ‘Spies’ May Be the Biggest Lie of All]
DONALD TRUMP: When they look at the documents, I think people are going to see a lot of bad things happen. I hope it's not so, because if it is, there's never been anything like it in the history of our country. I hope, I mean, if you look at Clapper, he sort of admitted that they had spies in the campaign yesterday inadvertently, but, I hope it's not true but it looks like it is.
LEMON: It's not true. It's a lie. James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence did not — did not in any way admit to the false charges, spies in the Trump campaign. In fact, he said the opposite. I want you to listen to what he told Jake Tapper today.
JAKE TAPPER: Did the intelligence community spy on President Trump and his campaign?
JAMES CLAPPER: No, we did not and that is a distortion of what I said. I — in fact, I had an aversion of the use of the term and I thought I made that clear and the important thing is here what was this all about? Well, what it was about was trying to determine what the Russians were doing. Were they trying to gain access, infiltrate a political campaign? Didn't matter what — what the — which campaign. It had nothing to do with spying on the campaign per se, it was about the Russians, which is what we all should be concerned about to include President Trump.
LEMON: And then there is the President’s own Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Listen to what he said today when asked if there was a so-called deep state at the State Department.
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN TED LIEU: Do you believe there's a so-called criminal deep state at the State Department?
MIKE POMPEO: I haven't seen comments from the President. I don't believe there's a deep state at the State Department.
LEMON: And yet, President Trump doubles down on his baseless claims of spies and a deep state.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Don’s Take; President Is Deliberately Repeating a Lie Hoping You’ll Believe Him]
This is not just an angry President popping off, this is a deliberate and coordinated effort to save his presidency, to cast doubt on the Russian investigation by repeating a lie. Repeating it every chance he gets and that repetition is a key part of the strategy here because if you hear him say the same thing over and over and over, it gets into your head. You may even start to wonder if there's some truth to it and that's exactly what the President and his allies want, to put that question in the back of your mind. It is a strategy he's used since he first stormed into the national political stage with his utterly false and racist birther claims that President Barack Obama was not born in this country.
TRUMP [on ABC’s The View, 03/23/11]: I want him to show his birth certificate. There's something on that birth certificate that he doesn't like.
LEMON: That was a lie. A lie he told for years. A lie he reportedly still clings to today but it served Trump's purpose, he rose to prominence on it. Do you think he regrets it in any way? I doubt it. What lesson do you think he learned from it? I wonder and you may wonder. You may have been wondering through all of this why doesn't his own party stand up against this blatant disregard for the truth. It's telling that the few Republicans who are speaking out against the President are leaving Congress like Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. In his Harvard Law School commencement address today here is what he said. This is a quote, “Our presidency has been debased by a figure who has a seemingly bottomless appetite for destruction and division and only a passing familiarity with how the Constitution works. I do not think that the Founders could have anticipated that the beauty of their invention might someday founder on the rocks of reality television and that the Congress would be such willing accomplices to this calamity.”
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Don’s Take; The Truth Is Under Daily Assault from the President and That Is a Crisis]
Very strong words, but this is not just about talk, this is about facts. Facts do matter, the truth matters, and the truth is under daily assault from the President of the United States and that is a crisis and that is the truth.
