CNN’s New Day ventured into preposterous territory on Friday morning when co-host Alisyn Camerota pinned the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting on Donald Trump. Camerota comments may be a new low even for CNN as she ignored this key point: The shooter went out of his way to say how much he DISLIKED the President.
The co-host was adamant that Trump was responsible for inciting both the attempted bombings of various news outlets and Democratic congress members, as well as the mass shooting carried out at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue:
I understand, but I just want to remind people that the guy in the van that was festooned with all the Trump stickers, sent bombs that he thought were active. This wasn't a false alarm. He meant to send bombs that would go off to news organizations and to leading Democrats, and the guy at the Tree of Life Synagogue, the mass shooter used the same terminology that the President had used and talked about how much he liked that.
Camerota’s ignorant, but typical of CNN’s cheap attempts to blame everything on Donald Trump. Regarding the President and this shooter, The Intelligencer wrote in October of last year:
Some have laid blame for the shooting at the feet of President Trump and his constant stoking of racial division. [The shooter] went out of his way on Gab to say he was no Trump booster. Despite Trump’s own embrace of the “nationalist” label, [the shooter] wrote on Gab that “Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist.” He also declared in May that he didn’t vote for Trump and had never “owned, worn, or even touched” a Make America Great Again hat.
The panel began the sickening segment by bashing GOP members of Congress for their unwillingness to break off from the President and denounce him as a racist. CNN law enforcement analyst Josh Campbell then went on to say that the President could potentially incite violence if he continued to use this rhetoric. Campbell wrapped up by falsely claiming that the President “tells people it's okay to hate people”:
Can I also just say, and see things not politically but through the lens of public safety and I think that’s one aspect of this as well that we should probably talk more about as a country, and that is, you know, the nature of the President's words and how that might incite people to violence. Our colleague Sarah Schneider had a great piece this week, talking about how, you know, there are people out there using the President's own words to discriminate against people. And we know in the past that's potentially an issue, when you have the commander in chief that tells people it's okay to hate people, you know, listen to my own words and use them, that could be dangerous in this country.
Talking heads on CNN regularly complain about the animosity in American politics in the Trump era. Their attempts to paint Trump as a villainous dictator who has caused rise of hatred and bigotry is partly to blame for the animosity itself. The liberal media’s rhetoric and disdain for conservatives gave birth to the Trump movement they despise so much.
Here is the complete transcript from the segment:
CNN New Day
07/19/2019
8:09 AM
JOHN BERMAN: Does it show that, you know, we always hear Republicans feel like they can't do anything, the President tweets what he tweets and we just have to watch it, but does this show there are times if they band together, if they speak up that they can get him to back off?
KRISTEN POWERS [CNN POLITICAL ANALYST]: Yes. But the point is I think they're much more interested in getting themselves re-elected, and they're not as offended by this as I frankly think that they should be. Right, I think there's so many things he does that are so problematic separate from the race issue. I mean, t's the authoritarianism, cozying up with authoritarians all around the world, all the different things that he does, and they just decide what’s more important is basically not pushing back against the President, what's important is me getting re-elected.
JOSH CAMPBELL [CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST]: Can I also just say, and see things not politically but through the lens of public safety and I think that’s one aspect of this as well that we should probably talk more about as a country, and that is, you know, the nature of the President's words and how that might incite people to violence. Our colleague Sarah Schneider had a great piece this week, talking about how, you know, there are people out there using the President's own words to discriminate against people. And we know in the past that's potentially an issue, when you have the commander in chief that tells people it's okay to hate people, you know, listen to my own words and use them, that could be dangerous in this country.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: We've already seen it. We’ve seen it!
CAMPBELL: We have. But we have to keep talking about it.
CAMEROTA: I understand, but I just want to remind people that the guy in the van that was festooned with all the Trump stickers, sent bombs that he thought were active. This wasn't a false alarm. He meant to send bombs that would go off to news organizations and to leading Democrats, and the guy at the Tree of Life synagogue, the mass shooter used the same terminology that the President had used and talked about how much he liked that.
CAMPBELL: Right, and after this happens the President will back down just a little bit for maybe a day or week so, and then goes right back to it.
POWERS: It's also not that much of a back down, right? It’s not – I mean the damage is done, and he's not apologizing. He's not saying that this was wrong, "I shouldn't have said that, I was in a bad mood and did some bad tweets, and actually this is un-American, and of course this is their home, and America belongs to everybody." That's not what he did. He just sort of pretended like: What? They were chanting? I didn't really hear that.
ANNA PALMER [SENIOR DC CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO]: This is strategy he's done several times, though. I mean, wrote a story up on Politico today about this is not the first time the President goes really far and then kinda gets some heat and then takes a little step back.
BERMAN: And it’s not the first time that he takes a step back and then un-steps the step back. He's on Twitter right now sort of equivocating on the whole thing. People can go look for themselves.
CAMPBELL: But the more this happens, he makes the job of law enforcement harder. He makes the job of the Capital Police harder, who have to protect these members of Congress that are now in his verbal cross hairs, hoping, God forbid, that doesn't turn into reality.
CAMEROTA: Such a great point, thank you very much Josh. And ladies, thank you also for the all the perspective.
