In a series of Tuesday tweets, President Trump weighed in on the latest concerns people were having after a couple of high profile deadly crashes involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and questioned the complexity of modern aircraft. Well, that triggered CNN hosts Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, who claimed the President was a “Luddite” and wondered if he wanted to bring back primitive modes of transportation.
Late in Prime Time, Cuomo read through the President’s tweets and immediately brought on “D. Lemon” to help him rip on Trump. “Hold your horses, Fred Flintstone. Hear the car,” Lemon mocked as he tapped his hands on the desk to simulate feet. “Come on. Honestly, it's silly.”
“There's a term for guys like this,” Cuomo then declared. “Luddite. People who fear technology. And fear what it's doing.”
After saying there were more terms for Trump too inappropriate for TV (classy) and seeming to suggest Trump was against technology, Lemon lasted out and started asked about what antiquated time period Trump supposedly wanted to send the country back to:
Do we want to stay in the stone ages? Do we want to stay in the olden times? Where again, I go back to Fred Flintstone, and I know that was a cartoon, but do we really want to do that, where people used to crank their cars up from the front, remember that, when you first got in? Or we can go back to horse and buggies. What do you want to do?
I mean, unless you want to -- We all have to get in the sardine can, so we may as well be as technically advanced as possible to keep us safe. And by the way, you pointed it out, with all of these advances, we've had the safest years ever in air travel.
True, it has never been safer to fly on a commercial aircraft, but Cuomo and Lemon went completely overboard with their attacks. And yet they accuse the President of fearmongering?
Ignoring the fact that Trump owned his own private jet, once owned an airline company, and uses Air Force One, Lemon declared that the President should try flying around in a plane of the 1950s or 1960s. "[O]r whenever he was born and try flying on that now and see how that suits you,” he spat.
“Look, I think that it's not about the facts, it's about the feeling that he's trying to evoke. Things used to be better before and then, fill in the blank,” Cuomo responded.
Cuomo further chiding, “But, you know, before these newfangled industries, before this multi-culturalism, before this everything is okay and everyone is equal, before, let's make ourselves great again. I say to people all the time, when were we ever greater than we are today? More free, more inclusive.”
To drive their ridiculous point home, the duo then (strangely enough) spontaneously sang a duet of All in the Family’s theme song, Those Were the Days (butchering some of the lyrics in the process). “Brilliant show. But what was it supposed to do? It was a parody. It was a parody in the perversity of ignorance in the form of Archie Bunker,” Cuomo proclaimed as they quickly moved on to promoting CNN Tonight.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time
March 12, 2019
9:48:02 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: The president, for some reason, is weighing in on Boeing's newest jet, tweeting this. "Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from M.I.T. I see it all the time, in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further when often old and simpler is far better. Split-second decisions are needed and the complexity creates danger. All of this for very great cost. Very little gain. I don't know about you, but I don't want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane."
Now, for a president who loves to tap into the bygone days of America, should we really be surprised? D. Lemon? How do you see this?
DON LEMON: Hold your horses, Fred Flintstone. Hear the car? [Slaps hands on the table] Come on.
CUOMO: Listen --
LEMON: Honestly, it's silly.
CUOMO: There's a term for guys like this.
LEMON: What?
CUOMO: Luddite. People who fear technology. And fear what it's doing.
LEMON: There's another term -- there are a couple more terms but I can't say it on television. Listen, the idea that the advancement of technology is a bad thing is just ludicrous and ridiculous. Do we want to stay in the stone ages? Do we want to stay in the olden times? Where again, I go back to Fred Flintstone, and I know that was a cartoon, but do we really want to do that, where people used to crank their cars up from the front, remember that, when you first got in? Or we can go back to horse and buggies. What do you want to do?
I mean, unless you want to -- We all have to get in the sardine can, so we may as well be as technically advanced as possible to keep us safe. And by the way, you pointed it out, with all of these advances, we've had the safest years ever in air travel.
CUOMO: Yeah, it's never been safer. Technology, certainly, helps. But I'm telling you, he knows what he's doing once again. He is tapping into this fear of the new, because people feel they're being left behind. Coal is great! Let's bring coal back. Never going to happen!
LEMON: Not unless you start making these, [holds up a cellphone] which are advanced, right? You don't get much more technically advanced than this. Not much more technically advanced than this. And unless you start making cellphones out of coal.
CUOMO: Got the color right, but other than that, forget it. Look, that's the point, is that he's tapping into something that's very real. I think this is a little bit of a stretch, to be honest. I think I would have to put this in the same category of the, your body only has a certain amount of energy in it, don't exercise too much, because you're basically killing yourself. I put it in the same category as that. The President said that.
LEMON: What about this, him flying around -- and I don't want anything to happen to him or his family or anyone with him.
CUOMO: God forbid.
LEMON: But just think, okay, go back to a plane from the 1960s or '50s or wherever he was born and try flying on that now and see how that suits you.
CUOMO: Look, I think that it's not about the facts, it's about the feeling that he's trying to evoke. Things used to be better before and then fill in the blank. Technology, again, I think he's on weak footing on that. But, you know, before these newfangled industries, before this multi-culturalism, before this everything is okay and everyone is equal, before, let's make ourselves great again. I say to people all the time, when were we ever greater than we are today? More free, more inclusive.
LEMON: Boy the way Glenn Miller played.
BOTH: Songs that made the hit parade. Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days.
LEMON: This is my favorite part.
CUOMO: I would have to be--
LEMON: And you know where you were then,
CUOMO: When guys were guys and men were men.
LEMON: Girls were girls and men were men. Oh my gosh. [Inaudible]
CUOMO: Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again. That's what he's tapping into.
LEMON: Didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled their slate.
BOTH: Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.
LEMON: That's exactly what this is!
BOTH: Those were the days!
CUOMO: That’s what we’re going back to?
LEMON: I love Norman Lear. Brilliant.
CUOMO: Brilliant show. But what was it supposed to do? It was a parody. It was a parody in the perversity of ignorance in the form of Archie Bunker.
LEMON: You know what I'm hearing right now? Wrap!
CUOMO: That’s what I’m hearing too.
