On Friday’s New Day, CNN co-hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota brought on senior political analyst Ron Brownstein to bash the Republican response to coronavirus and to defend the far-left rioters ravaging inner cities. Camerota had the nerve to blame the massive uptick in violence in cities on COVID-19 and Brownstein claimed that Trump was "fanning the flames of racial discord” by wanting to get the violence under control.
Berman began the discussion by exploiting the pandemic to celebrate his candidate, Joe Biden, having a lead in the polls:
Reality kills. And the important number is a thousand people dead in America for the third day in a row. The important number is Florida every day near or at record deaths and record hospitalizations. But there are political numbers here, too, Ron, which could be driving the President's situation -- situation -- decision, I'm sure are. I am fascinated by seniors in Florida and I think this tells you an incredible story. In the Quinnipiac poll that came out yesterday, look how the President is doing with seniors there. Joe Biden is leading the President by three points among people 65 and older, okay. Look at 2016. If we have that. In 2016, President Trump won people 65 and older by 17 points. 17 points. That's a huge reversal.
Brownstein responded with typical, cherry-picked Democratic talking points about the Republican handling of COVID:
Now, reality counts. I mean, look at Florida. Look at the polling in that polling you cited, Quinnipiac. 70% of the states say the virus is out of control. Roughly 60% disapprove of the way the President is handling. Roughly 60% disapprove of the way the governor is handling it. And why not? I mean they are going to cross 400,000 cases today or tomorrow. Sometime next week they will probably pass New York as the most cases in the country on a per capita basis. They have two times as many cases as any other state at this -- as California, which is, you know, not exactly doing great either.
Forget that Democrat-run states lead in deaths and that New York and California, despite stringent lockdown orders, still have had far more cases than Florida. It’s those evil Republicans killing people!
Always a good Democrat, Camerota blamed the increase in crime on the virus:
Of course, there's a nexus between the crime in cities and coronavirus. I mean, we in -- in the past week have had the commissioner of New York's police department on as well as the mayor who said that the court systems had to shut down because of coronavirus, so crimes weren't being prosecuted. I mean, there's a connection between people being released -- criminals being released out on the street and coronavirus.
She’s right, the increase in crime has probably nothing to do with the defund the police movement and violent protesters chanting to “fry” cops “like bacon.” It is certainly unrelated to the low morale that this has created among police officers, which has caused 600 New York police officers to consider resigning. It most definitely has nothing to with New York’s Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio disbanding New York’s plain clothes anti-crime unit in order to appease radical, Marxist Black Lives Matter.
Like a typical Democratic hack, Brownstein then attacked Trump for wanting to stop the violence, crying racism:
Well first look, his message is obvious, right? It's that the cities are these breeding grounds now of insurrection and violence and they are coming to get you in the suburbs and I am the human wall, I am the last line of defense between you and these marauding mobs from the cities that are coming to get you. Look, there's always an audience, as he has shown, for kind of this overt kind of fanning of racial resentment, but I -- it's pretty clear -- I don’t think it's anywhere near a majority. I mean, what's happening I -- I think very consistently around the country is that people in the suburbs are finding that they identify more with the viewpoints of kind of the urban centers nearby than they do with those of kind of the rural areas 30 and 40 miles further out. You know, it’s -- it’s the -- the dynamic -- you know -- in 1968, when Richard Nixon promised law and order, most people in the suburbs I think probably believed he could deliver it. Today, it's pretty clear in polling that many, many suburbanites believe that President Trump's approach is increasing the violence because he is fanning the flames of, kind of, racial discord in the country.
Since Brownstein is so worried about racism, why is he not concerned about people of color being killed in the streets? Multiple big cities, including New York, Chicago, and Atlanta, have seen hundreds of murders in the past month, including those of young children. In fact, Trump’s anti-crime plan is named Operation Legend, after a four year old African-American boy who was murdered while sleeping.
If CNN actually cared about black lives, the cable channel would spend more time covering the violence plaguing inner cities and less time bashing Trump for trying to quell the bloodshed.
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Read the full July 24th transcript here:
CNN New Day
07/24/20
6:08 AM ET
JOHN BERMAN: You know, Alisyn says reality counts, reality kills when it comes to a pandemic.
RON BROWNSTEIN (CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST): Yeah.
BERMAN: Reality kills. And the important number is a thousand people dead in America for the third day in a row. The important number is Florida every day near or at record deaths and record hospitalizations. But there are political numbers here, too, Ron, which could be driving the President's situation -- situation -- decision, I'm sure are. I am fascinated by seniors in Florida and I think this tells you an incredible story. In the Quinnipiac poll that came out yesterday, look how the President is doing with seniors there. Joe Biden is leading the President by three points among people 65 and older, okay. Look at 2016. If we have that.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
BERMAN: In 2016, President Trump won people 65 and older by 17 points. 17 points. That's a huge reversal. And I'm bringing this up not to talk about what might happen in November, but to talk about what's happening now --
BROWNSTEIN: Yep.
BERMAN: -- which is that people most affected by the pandemic have just turned on the President.
BROWNSTEIN: Right, no Democrat has won seniors on a national basis since Al Gore in 2000. And, you know, the President, as you say, was very strong among not only seniors, but whites 45 to 64. One -- one key fact about seniors is they're much more white than the population overall. The baby boom was -- was 80% white. Now, reality counts. I mean, look at Florida. Look at the polling in that polling you cited, Quinnipiac. 70% of the states say the virus is out of control. Roughly 60% disapprove of the way the President is handling. Roughly 60% disapprove of the way the governor is handling it. And why not? I mean they are going to cross 400,000 cases today or tomorrow. Sometime next week they will probably pass New York as the most cases in the country on a per capita basis. They have two times as many cases as any other state at this -- as California, which is, you know, not exactly doing great either. So, yes, the President is paying a price. Now, I would say, John, that his kind of cultural message of, you know, the cities are out of control and they are coming to get you, if there's an audience that might work with elements of it, it would be older white voters, but I -- again, there's only so far you can push that, as long as there is this consensus that you have failed on literally the -- a life and death issue, probably the greatest life and death challenge that Americans have faced in our lifetime.ALISYN CAMEROTA: Of course, there's a nexus between the crime in cities and coronavirus. I mean, we in -- in the past week have had the commissioner of New York's police department on as well as the mayor who said that the court systems had to shut down because of coronavirus, so crimes weren't being prosecuted. I mean, there's a connection between people being released -- criminals being released out on the street and coronavirus. But in terms of if that pivot to law and order will work, Ron, you know, President Trump has been talking about how white housewives, suburban housewives, I think was his expression --
BROWNSTEIN: His friends, yes.
CAMEROTA: -- really care about this. Do you see evidence that if he pivots to law and order, it could help him?
BROWNSTEIN: Well first look, his message is obvious, right? It's that the cities are these breeding grounds now of insurrection and violence and they are coming to get you in the suburbs and I am the human wall, I am the last line of defense between you and these marauding mobs from the cities that are coming to get you. Look, there's always an audience, as he has shown, for kind of this overt kind of fanning of racial resentment, but I -- it's pretty clear -- I don’t think it's anywhere near a majority. I mean, what's happening I -- I think very consistently around the country is that people in the suburbs are finding that they identify more with the viewpoints of kind of the urban centers nearby than they do with those of kind of the rural areas 30 and 40 miles further out. You know, it’s -- it’s the -- the dynamic -- you know -- in 1968, when Richard Nixon promised law and order, most people in the suburbs I think probably believed he could deliver it. Today, it's pretty clear in polling that many, many suburbanites believe that President Trump's approach is increasing the violence because he is fanning the flames of kind of racial discord in the country and for that matter, they've certainly reached that same conclusion about his approach to the coronavirus. Don’t forget that in -- in the Sun Belt suburbs, which are kind of the new battleground of American politics outside Phoenix and Dallas and Houston and Atlanta and the I-5 corridor, these are places where local officials are being stopped by Republican governors acting really on President Trump’s cues from imposing local lockdowns, despite the surging cases.
CAMEROTA: Yeah.
BROWNSTEIN: I mean, explicitly, you are seeing the governors do that. And I think both of these combine in the same way to kind of blunt the impact of that message, although there's probably some audience for it.
BERMAN: Hey look yeah, it was the President who pushed to reopen, probably sooner than these states should have. It was the President who pushed to pack stadiums, it was the President who was mocking maskes -- mocking masks, and it may be hard for voters to forget that. Ron Brownstein, great to see you in the morning. Thanks so much for getting up for us.
