CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Tuesday discovered a new phrase that he could employ in deriding Donald Trump. The New Day anchor used it again and again, repeatedly wondering if the President is a “moral agent.”
Talking about the President’s speech on Afghanistan, the journalist lectured, “Moral agency is about what comes out of you at your core. Okay?” Cuomo hinted that Trump’s well-received speech would soon be contradicted.
Talking to U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the anchor suggested the speech was all an effort to build up, you guessed it, “moral agency”:
I want to talk to you about the top of the speech, because it seemed that the President was using it as an opportunity to go back a week and talk about what happened in Charlottesville and try to build up some of the moral agency that many people feel he surrendered last week.
According to the website Ethics Unwrapped, a moral agent “is a person who has the ability to discern right from wrong and to be held accountable for his or her own actions. Moral agents have a moral responsibility not to cause unjustified harm.”
Cuomo the philosopher in 2015 angrily declared on air that “our rights do not come from God!”
On Tuesday, the journalist cited Paul Ryan’s criticism of Trump’s reaction to Charlottesville. He wondered, “Speaker Paul Ryan had a strong reaction. Does he own the mantle of authority in moral agency?”
Talking to Republican Congressman Charlie Dent about the President, Cuomo returned to professor mode and chided, “This isn't a policy debate. This is about moral agency and standing firm about what matters in America.”
Who better than a CNN journalist to lecture about right and wrong?
Partial transcripts are below:
New Day
8/22/17
6:11am ETCHRIS CUOMO: Moral agency is about what comes out of you at your core. Okay? It doesn’t matter how you say it. You don’t have to be articulate. You just have to mean it. And the problem is, you can have an eloquently spoken word as we saw at the top of the speech last night but it doesn't mean that people are going to believe, especially when it has been contradicted time again.
6:14am ET
CUOMO: So as we mentioned President Trump is trying to circle back, clean up the mess. It's his mess from Charlottesville. He fanned the flames of hate. There was plenty of opportunity to say the right things coming out of it. He just didn’t. Speaker Paul Ryan had a strong reaction. Does he own the mantle of authority in moral agency? Judge for yourself
6:48am ET
CUOMO: So, I want to talk to you about the top of the speech, because it seemed that the president was using it as an opportunity to go back a week and talk about what happened in Charlottesville, and try to build up some of the moral agency that many people feel he surrendered last week. What did you hear in the top of his speech last night?
HALEY: Well, I think he clarified the importance of unity. He clarified the fact that there is no room for bigotry in our country. But he brought it home to the fact that if our troops are fighting overseas, and they're fighting for our freedoms and they're fighting for our rights, let's not abuse it, because at the end of the day, we are one country, and we have to stand united. And I think he clarified that very well.
CUOMO: You know, you shot to national prominence because of the moral leadership that you showed in then your home state as governor, and what happened in Charleston, and how you dealt with it and what you let this country know about what you would tolerate and what you would not, and calling out hate when you saw it.
Do you believe that the president did that when he needed to last week?
7:25am
CUOMO [To Rep. Charlie Dent]: We have a list of people who have spoken out against him. You're on that list. There are many more who have not said, “Mr. President, what you said is wrong and here is why I believe that and here is what the right thing is.” This isn't a policy debate. This is about moral agency and standing firm about what matters in America.
