December 10th, 2020 10:02 AM
CNN getting bored by all the shopworn Trump/Hitler analogies? Searching for a new metaphor with which to attack the president?
On this morning's New Day, co-host John Berman strained logic and analogy beyond the breaking point by claiming that in joining the Texas lawsuit challenging election results in other states, President Trump has somehow made himself . . . the equivalent of the secessionist slave states in the Civil War!
In his statement announcing his joining of the lawsuit, the president said that the country "is deeply divided in ways that it arguably has not been seen since the election of 1860."
Berman took Trump's statement and ran. According to his tortured logic, since the 1860 division was caused by slave states opposing Lincoln's election, Biden, ipso facto, is the modern-day Lincoln, and Trump, in opposing Biden's election, is the equivalent of the secessionist slave states.
Here's the quote:
The president’s filing with the Supreme Court states, quote, "Our country is deeply divided in ways that it arguably has not been seen since the election of 1860." So leave aside the circular logic of decrying division when he is the one stoking it. But that reference to the election of 1860. You know why the country was divided by that election? Because Abraham Lincoln won, fairly, and slave states were pissed about that, and they seceded, and there was a Civil War.
So by the reasoning of the president’s crack legal team, Joe Biden is Abraham Lincoln here, the guy who won, fairly, and the president is the slave states, the ones who seceded and then the Civil War. That's who Donald Trump is relating to this morning, as 3,000 new coronavirus deaths were reported overnight.
Berman came back to this screed at the end of the 7 AM hour and repeated it. The absurdity of his assertion is obvious. President Trump cited 1860 as a chronological marker. And indeed, it's also obvious that the country is more deeply divided than it has been in a very long time.
But the reasons for the division have absolutely nothing to do with slavery. Instead, the country is divided over the deeply differing visions for America offered by a Republican president and legislators, and that of a Democrat party veering ever-further left.
To exploit the President's historical reference to brand him the equivalent of secessionist slave states is nothing more than an absurd slur perpetrated by Berman/CNN.
This, apparently, is becoming a daily thing on CNN. On Wednesday’s New Day, analyst John Avlon compared Trump to the Confederacy. There’s no depths too low for CNN to dredge.
CNN's absurd equation of President Trump with the secessionist slave states in the Civil War was sponsored in part by Dell, Mercedes, and Proctor & Gamble, maker of Oil of Olay. Contact them at the Conservatives Fight Back link to let them know what you think of their sponsorship of CNN's absurd slur of President Trump.
Here's the transcript.
CNN
New Day
12/10/20
6:00 am ETJOHN BERMAN: The president tries to undermine democracy, and seems to identify with insurrection. The president has joined a lawsuit from the attorney general of Texas, himself under federal investigation, to try to overturn the results of the election he lost.
The president’s filing with the Supreme Court states, quote, "Our country is deeply divided in ways that it arguably has not been seen since the election of 1860."
So leave aside the circular logic of decrying division when he is the one stoking it. But that reference to the election of 1860. You know why the country was divided by that election? Because Abraham Lincoln won, fairly, and slave states were pissed about that, and they seceded, and there was a Civil War.
So by the reasoning of the president’s crack legal team, Joe Biden is Abraham Lincoln here, the guy who won, fairly, and the president is the slave states, the ones who seceded and then the Civil War. That's who Donald Trump is relating to this morning, as 3,000 new coronavirus deaths were reported overnight.
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