The liberal media have been desperately trying to make the Mississippi Senate runoff a fight between a “moderate” Democrat in Mike Espy and raging racist in Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith. First, they tried to claim she said she would love to be a witness to a lynching, then, among other things, they lied and claimed she sent her daughter to a segregated school. Now, according to CNN on Tuesday, Trump saying Espy was too “far-left” to “fit in” with Mississippi was a racist dog whistle and evidence of Hyde-Smith’s true self.
In order to understand the context of Trump’s comment, here it is: “Cindy's far-left opponent, he's far left. Oh, he's out there. How does he fit in with Mississippi? I could go over this. But how does he fit in?”
In the middle of CNN’s Election Night coverage during Cuomo Prime Time, host Chris Cuomo turned to senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and asked her if she saw Trump’s comment as purely racist. “Do you see this as just a left/right play, or was this an allusion to something else also known as color,” he instructed her.
At first, Henderson lamented: “Yeah, I mean, it's hard to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt in instances like this…” (Apparently, it was difficult not to mischaracterize what was actually said.) Though clearly reluctant, she did admit that “in this context, he was talking about the idea that Mike Espy is a Democrat.”
“So, I think that's probably what he was talking about more, and this would be the play they would make probably for any Democrat. This idea that they don't fit in with Mississippi values, they don't fit in with Republican and conservative values. So, that's what he was saying there,” she added.
But Cuomo was determined to make his mischaracterization of the President’s comments stick. Some 40 minutes later, he brought it up again. This time, he pitched the idea to someone he knew would play along with his conspiracy theory and give him the answer he was looking for: CNN Tonight host Don Lemon.
“So, was it just us-versus-them of politics or was it something else? Let's bring in D. Lemon about this. What did you hear there in terms of the reference to Mike Espy, by the way, born in Mississippi, family successful there, served in Congress there. Certainly, he fits into the state,” Cuomo exclaimed.
Cuomo also admitted that he was only showing viewers an edited version of Trump’s comments, but they needed to take his word that he knew what was in Trump’s heart and on his mind. “Now in fairness to me, there's more to that quote. If you look, you can see the President was struggling whether or not he really wanted to go somewhere,” he divined, suggesting Trump was debating if he should be more racist.
After first joking with Cuomo about not knowing what he was talking about, Lemon shouted: “Come on, Chris! Are you kidding me? We got to stop pretending like, ‘oh, no, they didn't -- that's exactly what he meant.’”
According to Lemon, there were only two options for why Trump and Hyde-Smith would say the things that they said. Either it was “he didn't know what he was saying or that he did.” He was adamant that it was a racist comment but the only contention was how loud it was, either it was “dog whistle, if it is, or, you know, it could just be a loud cry.”
But what if you thought Lemon was full of it? “[Y]ou're just ignorant of the facts,” according to him.
This is CNN.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time
November 27, 2018
9:06:26 p.m. Eastern [2 minutes 19 seconds]CHRIS CUOMO: And yet, even though, really Hyde-Smith should win this, Nia, it didn't stop Trump from going down there, going all in on this, and making a play that I think has to be called out. Him saying Mike Espy doesn't fit in. Mel, you tell me if we have the sound and I’ll play the President or not. Listen to what the President said.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Cindy's far-left opponent, he's far left. Oh, he's out there. How does he fit in with Mississippi? I could go over this. But how does he fit in?
CUOMO: Do you see this as just a left/right play, or was this an allusion to something else also known as color?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt in instances like this, but seems like in this context he was talking about the idea that Mike Espy is a Democrat. He's describing him as a far-left Democrat. He’s really not a far-left Democrat. He's pretty moderate; a sort of new Democrat in the, sort of, Clinton mold.
So, I think that's probably what he was talking about more, and this would be the play they would make probably for any Democrat. This idea that they don't fit in with Mississippi values, they don't fit in with Republican and conservative values. So, that's what he was saying there.
If you're the President, you want to go to Mississippi, you want to avoid a Doug Jones situation in Alabama. It's a state that voted for him, I think, by 18 points or something like that. He won that state, so that's his crowd. The thing in this race to look for, obviously, is what the African-American turnout is there. African-Americans make up about 37 percent of the state. Or something like that.
(…)
CUOMO: But on the ground there the current senator, Hyde-Smith not owning what she said about the front row to a public hanging and saying, “anything I said, I want to apologize.” Now look, I grew up in politics. I know that rule, David Chalian, which is: never repeat your mistake. Never repeat it. Apologize if you must, but never repeat it because they'll count it as you having said it twice. And that's what she did there and I wonder how that plays on the ground. “Did you really apologize or did you say what you had to because you would even own what you said?”
(…)
9:49:59 p.m. Eastern [2 minutes21 seconds]
CUOMO: Now in fairness to me, there's more to that quote. If you look, you can see the President was struggling whether or not he really wanted to go somewhere. Remember who he's backing in Cindy Hyde-Smith, remember what she said in that election, what she refused to apologize for specifically., the fool that he backed in Virginia, what he did with Roy Moore in Alabama. This is a President who hasn't shied away from supporting people who support causes that are way too akin to bigotry that we've ever seen with a Republican in the modern era, a president back them.
So, was it just us-versus-them of politics or was it something else? Let's bring in D. Lemon about this. What did you hear there in terms of the reference to Mike Espy, by the way, born in Mississippi, family successful there, served in Congress there. Certainly, he fits into the state!
DON LEMON: I didn't hear anything. Come on, Chris! Are you kidding me? We got to stop pretending like, oh, no, they didn't -- that's exactly what he meant. And what's worse? That he didn't know what he was saying or that he did? I think they're equally as damaging. The fact that you can say it and you know it's a dog whistle, if it is, or, you know, it could just be a loud cry, or you're just ignorant of the facts.
So you got he didn't know what a nationalist was, right, by saying he was a nationalist. Didn't know the ramifications of that, didn’t know the history of that. Cindy Hyde-Smith saying I'd be on the front --
CUOMO: Front row of a public hanging.
LEMON: Okay. She should know better than that, but it didn't mean that didn't mean anything. We don't want to monkey this race up down in Florida. Oh, okay. I didn't know what any of that means. Again, I go back to my original question. Is it worse that you know what it means or that you're in a position where you're going to be leading people in this country, and you don't know what it means? I think they're both equally as bad.
CUOMO: And I think that you win this round because, in context, it doesn't make the same sense that it would out of context. If the President had only said this, it would be one thing. But he's said too many things and backed too many candidates who believe too many ugly things to take it any other way.
LEMON: I'm a son of the south, Chris. None of this stuff surprises me, the whole segregation school. None of it, none of it, none of it surprises me.
(…)
