On Sunday afternoon’s CNN Newsroom, host Ana Cabrera brought on Yale history professor Timothy Snyder to make his usual absurd attacks on Republicans and forward outlandish conspiracy theories. Cabrera worried that America is “down the road to tyranny” due to President Trump and Snyder expressed support for Ted Cruz being removed from the Senate because he and all other Republicans who voiced doubts about the election have been “inviting an attack on the Capitol.”
Cabrera began the segment by promoting Snyder’s book On Tyranny, in which he compared Trump to Hitler and claimed that Trump will take over the U.S. government through a Reichstag Fire type scheme.
Cabrera fretted that Trump will have “dire consequences for democracy” and that America is “down the road to tyranny”:
I don't want to sound like an alarmist but I genuinely wonder because you and I have been speaking about where we are headed for years now. How far down the road to tyranny has America traveled? Where is the country right now on that dark path?
Cabrera does indeed “sound like an alarmist” if she is worried that a president who has just been impeached for the second time and has been condemned by even his own supporters for his actions during the Capitol Hill riot is somehow going to become a dictator.
Cabrera then enthusiastically read a tweet by Beto O’Rourke in which he advocated for Senator Ted Cruz being ousted from the Senate and prevented from attending the inauguration:
I’m curious to get your reaction to this tweet from former Congressman and presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and he says this: “Don't let Cruz attend the inauguration. His attempt at sedition and his incitement to violent insurrectionists should result in his expulsion from the Senate. He certainly shouldn't be allowed at a celebration of the peaceful transfer of presidential power.”
Since he ran against Cruz for the Senate, O’Rourke is undoubtedly a good source for unbiased takes about Cruz!
Snyder praised O’Rourke’s “points” and accused Cruz and all other Republicans who expressed concern about the election of “inviting” the Capitol Hill riot:
He’s got a bunch of points there…if you are a legislator, if you were elected, and then you call elections into question, you're inviting an attack on the people's house. You're inviting attack on the Capitol. That is exactly what those Senators and Congressmen did who doubted the election. So I think there really is a point here... And so the point about Mr. Cruz and by the way also about Mr. Hawley I think is a very strong one.
Cabrera and Snyder sure do have a talent for unhinged attacks on Republicans when they team up. In November, the duo fear mongered about Trump leading a “coup d'état.” After the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, they claimed that U.S. democracy is in a “precarious” situation due to Trump being able to nominate another justice to the Supreme Court.
Cabrera accused Republicans of setting a “new terrible precedent” of doubting election results, which is hilarious considering that CNN aided the Democrats with pushing the Russia collusion myth throughout Trump’s time in office.
Cabrera then played a clip of Joe Biden so the two Democrats could shamelessly praise Biden, who Snyder compared to Abraham Lincoln and FDR:
CABRERA: So from American carnage under Trump to time to heal under Biden. How important will his words be when he makes his address on the balcony of the U.S. Capitol?
SNYDER: Well, you can't be a great president without being a crisis president. Our two greatest presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt were crisis presidents.
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Read the full January 17th transcript here:
CNN Newsroom
1/17/21
4:23:29 PM
ANA CABRERA: Joining us now Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale and author of the book On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century. Professor, you have said a big lie can survive the liar and it's vital for Donald Trump's big lie to be cut off or history shows there can be dire consequences for democracy and so when you look at that video and you hear the rage from these Trump supporters who have been fed misinformation, lies for months, how do you cut off that lie?
TIMOTHY SNYDER (YALE HISTORY PROFESSOR AND AUTHOR OF ON TYRANNY: 20 Yeah, this -- what we see is just what happens. If a lie is big, like, for example, Mr. Trump won the election, then if you believe that lie, you're inside a group and you feel like everyone else is on the outside. And then what’s worse, if you do something on behalf of that lie, if you hurt people, if you attack a building, if you repeat that lie, then you're committed to it yourself. So how do you reel this back? History tells us that lies can outlive the liar and this lie will outlive Mr. Trump unless people take responsibility at the top, unless Republicans who have been mealy mouthed about this or have confirmed the lie change their minds and say the truth. And in the long term, what this country needs, is much more local news. Much more production of facts about things that matter to people in their daily lives. What’s part of what has happened to us is we've lost the little truths all around us along with the local news and that vacuum gets filled up with a big lie, with something -- with the attractiveness of a big lie from a great distance
CABRERA: I don't want to sound like an alarmist but I -- I genuinely wonder because you and I have been speaking about where we are headed for years now. How far down the road to tyranny has America traveled? Where is the country right now on that dark path?
SNYDER: It's -- it’s not -- not a road. It's -- it’s an open field and there are many different ways you can turn. So it was never a sure thing that we will be a democracy and it’s not a sure thing that we’ll turn away from democracy. What I would say is that what happened on January 6th was in the cards a long time before January 6th. We -- we chose a president who doesn't believe in choosing presidents. We had a man in office for four years who told small lies, medium sized lies, until he finally got to the big lie. When the big lie is told we see that Americans are no worse, no better than anyone else. We act just like everyone else. And now we know that. Here's the optimistic part. Now that we know that we have a chance to rebuild. We know there’s nothing automatic about being a city -- being a city on a hill. You have to build. You have to climb that hill and you have to build that city. And that I think is our chance to recognize that this is a moment where we could actually create a better democracy. We can't rely on the past. There's a future that we have to create.
CABRERA: I wonder how much accountability is important in all of this as you rebuild because you talked a lot about how elected officials helped spread the President's big lie so I’m curious to get your reaction to this tweet from former Congressman and presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and he says this: “Don't let Cruz attend the inauguration. His attempt at sedition and his incitement to violent insurrectionists should result in his expulsion from the Senate. He certainly shouldn't be allowed at a celebration of the peaceful transfer of presidential power.” Do you think he has a point?
SNYDER: He's -- he’s got -- he’s got a bunch of points there. Number -- number one, Mr. Trump never could have spread the big lie on his own without Mr. -- without Mr. Cruz, without Mr. Hawley, without -- without a number of other Republicans, that big lie would’ve never made it out of November into where we are now. Number two, if you are a legislator, if you were elected, and then you call elections into question, you're inviting an attack on the people's house. You're inviting attack on the capitol. That is exactly what those Senators and Congressmen did who -- who doubted -- who doubted the election. So I think there really is a point here. And the final point is that people who call into question American elections, what they're asking for is another chance for themselves. It didn't work in 2020 but maybe it'll work in 2024 to lose an election, cry -- cry fraud, and then -- and then ask for violence. That has to be cut off now. And so the point about Mr. Cruz and by the way also about Mr. Hawley I think is a very strong one.
CABRERA: It -- it definitely -- definitely could set a terrible new precedent, right? That’s -- that’s the biggest fear I have is like, where does it go from here? It just seems like we're living a nightmare right now or in a -- some kind of terror movie. As we look ahead to Wednesday now, Joe Biden will be president. He'll be a crisis president from day one. He has an impeachment trial looming for President Trump still. A struggling economy. A raging pandemic. And on top of -- of it all he is going to be taking the oath of office in a city that looks like a war zone and we've been, you know, getting a taste of the message he’s going to deliver in the days ahead. Listen to this.
[Cuts to Clip]
JOE BIDEN: We didn't get into all this overnight. We won't get out of it overnight. And we can't do it as a separated and divided nation. The only way we can do it is to come together, to come together as fellow Americans, as neighbors, as the United States of America.
[Cuts to live]
CABRERA: So from American carnage under Trump to time to heal under Biden. How important will his words be when he makes his address on the balcony of the U.S. Capitol?
SNYDER: Well, you can't be a great president without being a crisis president. Our two greatest presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt were -- were crisis presidents. I think it’s very important what Mr. Biden says. I think it’s also very important what Mr. Biden does. Healing can only arise after there's truth. And reconciliation can only arise when we deal with the problems like the absence of local news, like the presence of COVID, which are making Americans much more anxious and lonely than they really have to be. So the words will be important but the remaking of American society from the ground up with more emphasis on truth, more emphasis on health, more emphasis on people having basic, normal lives with better expectations, that’s what will count in the long run.
CABRERA: I couldn't agree more. And you know it more than all of us. Thank you, Timothy Snyder, for sharing all of your research with us and helping us understand this moment we're living through. Really appreciate your time.
