On Thursday, CNN Business managing editor Alex Koppelman -- Brian Stelter's supervisor and formerly a denizen of the leftist swamp known as Salon.com -- went on the war path against Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, who energetically competes to be the most pro-Trump journalist in all the land. Dobbs retweeted a man named Frank Bodziak, who tweeted on May 5 that congressmen opposing Trump should be prosecuted for "treason." They should face the death penalty for "investigating the president"!?
It is surely overheated to suggest the people investigating President Trump and the persisently unproven "Russian collusion" are treasonous.
But does this CNN executive really think CNN doesn't recklessly throw around the T-word like a platoon of Twitter hotheads? We've blogged a pile of this on CNN.
In 2014, CNN anchor Carol Costello brought on Daily Beast crank Cliff Schecter and promoted his article:
COSTELLO: He says, quote, “we are reaping what they, the NRA, have sowed. Their rhetoric, their firearms policies, their followers. If we want to change things, it starts with not sugar-coating or ignoring the treasonous and murderous role played by the leaders of the NRA, but by acknowledging it and taking them on every day.”
CNN knows how to pick 'em: Schecter earlier suggested it was "treason" for Republicans to under-fund infrastructure programs.
Then there's the Trump presidency:
-- CNN's John King suggested Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was on a "treasonous path" for exploring a back-channel with Russians to discuss Syria.
-- CNN's Jeff Zeleny argued it was "treasonous" to question Barack Obama's birth certificate.
-- CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin suggested the Trump Tower meeting was treasonous: “The idea that people involved in an American presidential campaign would greedily reach out to the Russian government for dirt on their opponent, as Donald Trump Jr. and company did, does feel treasonous in a sort of colloquial sense.”
-- CNN's Don Lemon tried to make a case for Trump treason as the president met with Putin in Helsinki:
DON LEMON: Article III in Section Three of the Constitution says this, “treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” So no president has ever been charged with treason, Douglas. Do you believe the President's actions fall anywhere within that definition?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: Well, we had a vice president, Aaron Burr in 1807 who was charged with treason. There was a famous trial, and they didn't feel they had the goods to bust Burr fully....But the spirit of what Trump did is clearly treasonous. It's a betrayal of the United States.
CNN analyst Max Boot warmed himself up to the idea: “Ian [Bremmer] is resisting the notion of describing that as treason, and I admit, that’s a very strong word, but if you’re truly in the bag for our adversary, then how do you describe that?”
We found CNN spent over seven hours of air time obsessing over Trump's "perfidy" at the Helsinki summit over just three nights. Brian Stelter even promoted the T-word in his newsletter.
So heal thyself, Koppelman and CNN.
