Instant karma for CNN's John Berman this morning.
The New Day co-host was strangely obsessed with the size of the desk that President Trump sat at yesterday as he took some questions from the press. The CNN host repeatedly mentioned the desk size in each of New Day's three hours. At one point, Berman somehow imagined a "metaphor" in the image of a "large man at a small desk."
And Berman repeatedly expressed outrage at the fact that the president had called Reuters reporter Jeff Mason a "lightweight." Trump told Mason not to speak to him, or any President of the United States, in the manner he did as Mason pressed him as to whether he would concede the election to Joe Biden.
Then, karma struck. In the final New Day hour, Berman had the aforementioned Mason on as a guest. After yet again raising the desk size, Berman asked Mason "what's going on with that?" He got an answer he surely wasn't expecting, or hoping for. Mason:
You know, I saw the reaction on Twitter. It didn't strike me as all that unusual. They just set up the Diplomatic Room for him to speak to the troops. I've seen desks like that before . . . I don't think there's anything to be read into it. It was just staging.
You could almost hear the air going out of poor Berman's tiny balloon!
John Berman's obsession over Trump desk size was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual and Hello Fresh
Here's the transcript.
CNN
New Day
11/27/20
6:14 am ETPRESIDENT TRUMP [to Jeff Mason]: Don't talk to me that way. You're just a lightweight. Don't talk to -- I'm the President of the United States. Don't ever talk to the President that way.
JOHN BERMAN: Happy Thanksgiving, America. That was the president: a large man at a very small table in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, answering questions from reporters. You saw lies, wrath, and rancor there.
. . .
What a small moment for the presidency. He was yelling at Jeff Mason, one of the most mild-mannered reporters you'll find in America. I don't mean mild-mannered in terms of of how good he is as a reporter. I mean, he's just a calm guy: he doesn't attack anybody.
That was a small moment. You know, the president sitting at that tiny desk is sort of a metaphor for the moment, Susan [Glasser, of The New Yorker.] It's sort of like the desk you sit at during a parent-teacher conference when you're sitting at, you know, a third-grader's desk. That's what the president looked like: is a large man at a small desk in a small moment, spouting lies that were filled with rancor. On Thanksgiving!
. . .
Jeff [Mason], we've got to let you go here, but what was the deal with the desk there? It looked like a parent-teacher conference, you know, for a third-grade classroom where you're forced to sit at a tiny little desk--cram yourself in there. What's going on with that?
JEFF MASON: You know, I saw the reaction to that on Twitter. It didn't strike me as anything that unusual. They just set up the Diplomatic Room for him to speak to the troops. I've seen desks like that before. I don't know if I've seen that particular smaller one. But I don't think there's anything to be read into it. It was just staging.
