You say to-MAY-to and I say to-MAH-to. You say KAM-a-la, and Trump says Ka-MA-la. Let's call the whole thing off!
CNN This Morning devoted an entire segment to their outrage over Trump's allegedly gleeful mispronunciation of Harris's first name, going so far as to prepare a mash-up of several times Trump did it yesterday.
Host Kasie Hunt literally turned to a Karen to complain. CNN analyst and former Hillary Clinton aide Karen Finney objected to "the intentionality with which, and almost the glee on his face, when he mispronounces her name."
Jonah Goldberg wasn't so sure Trump's mispronunciation was intentional, but he agreed with Finney that it was an attempt to "other" her.
GOLDBERG: He's certainly looking to other her and do all sorts of terrible things to her. And I don't dispute that for a second.But, like, he mispronounced Buttigieg, his name, all the time too. And people just sometimes get hooked up on this. So I just don't know if -- it could be deliberate. It also might not be.
Really? How is Ka-MA-la any more foreign that KA-ma-la? Neither is exactly Mary Jane. The controversy echoes the pro-Democrat media objecting in 2008 to opponents saying "Barack Hussein Obama." But a country that twice elected Obama is not overly concerned with nomenclature!
Hunt ended the segment by claiming that by his pronunciation of Kamala, Trump was trying to "torque" all the reasons "why it has been difficult for women and people of color to get elected in this country." She's not always this ethnically hypersensitive. This the same CNN host who giggled when Chris Christie mocked Team Trump as "Corleones without experience."
They did not spend time assessing Kamala Harris campaigning against Trump: “Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, and cheaters who broke the rules for their gain. So hear me when I say -- I know Donald Trump’s type.” Isn't "predator" and "fraudster" harsher than "Ka-MA-la"?
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
7/25/24
6:17 am EDTDONALD TRUMP: If Kamala will lie to you so brazenly about Joe Biden's mental incapacity, then she will lie to you about anything. She can never, ever be trusted. She can't be trusted. And just like Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris is unfit to lead.
And a vote for Kamala is a vote for four more years of dishonesty, incompetence, weakness, and failure. Other than that, she's doing an excellent job.
KASIE HUNT: All right. Our panel is back. Karen, you got something to say there?
KAREN FINNEY: You know, the intentionality with which, and almost the glee on his face, when he mispronounces his, her name.
HUNT: Let me show, we got a mash-up of all the times he does this. Let's watch this because, and I want to Karen pick up out of this too, because it's intentional. And it does matter, I think. Watch.
TRUMP: If Kamala Harris gets in . . . Lyin Kamala Harris . . . Kamala Harris is the most liberal elected politician in American history . . . Kamala threw open our borders . . . Lyin' Kamala Harris. Lyin . . . Kamala! You're fired! Get outta here. You're fired.
HUNT: That was all yesterday. And again, it's KA-ma-la. It's not hard, right?
FINNEY: It's easy. Comma. La. That's all you gotta do. Yeah.
Look, it's so intentional. It's so obvious. It's othering. It's trying to make her seem like she's some bizarre, not one of us. It's, you know, it's also demeaning, right? Because one of the most basic forms of respect is to pronounce somebody's name or to say, how do you pronounce your name?
And look, I mean, for African-Americans, there's a whole history of, we didn't get to choose our names for a very long time. But most importantly, it's just such a sign of disrespect. And it's such an obvious, intentional way to try to belittle her and demean her on the national stage.
As to your point, they're trying to define her as someone who's insignificant.
HUNT: Jonah, I'm intrigued by the look on your face.
JONAH GOLDBERG: Look, as someone who mispronounces words all the time. I think that there are people who, in good faith, just mispronounce her name. I think Trump is a grumpy old 78-year-old guy. It might be deliberate. He's certainly looking to other her and do all sorts of terrible things to her. And I don't dispute that for a second.
But, like, he mispronounced Buttigieg, his name, all the time too. And people just sometimes get hooked up on this. So I just don't know if -- it could be deliberate. It also might not be.
I just, I think this is the kind of thing that plays really well among people who were already going to vote for Harris [Finney nods in agreement], and making -- there's so many richer targets to point at about what they're going to say and do towards Harris that will play with persuadables in the middle. I'm not sure, like, the on-the-bubble suburban voter is like, okay, now I'm going to vote for her because Trump's mispronouncing her name.
HUNT: Right, I think that the point is, though, is, is, instead to underscore to people who have, you know, all the reasons why it has been difficult for women and people of color to get elected in this country. He's trying to torque that tendency, right?
GOLDBERG: Sure.
