CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley has been unhinged in offering deranged meltdowns before, but this one during Friday’s At This Hour was perhaps his worst. Whining about the lack of “climate activism” from the Trump administration, Brinkley bemoaned President Trump’s “embarrassing” G-20 trip leading to “a shrinking of American prestige.”
Brinkley was teed up by fill-in host Ana Cabrera, who read a Trump tweet about the G-20 Summit and John Podesta’s hacked e-mail server. She wondered if Brinkley agreed with her that it seems “a little juvenile” on Trump’s part.
He then unleashed, flashing his lack of self-awareness for President Barack Obama’s apology tour from his first handful of overseas trips:
Extremely juvenile. You know, I did my doctorate at Georgetown in U.S. diplomatic history and the first thing you learn when you study diplomacy is an American president or senator, congressman doesn't dis their own country when they go abroad. That's what Donald Trump has done on this trip and this whole visit has been embarrassing.
Discounting the notion that European countries are ideologically to the left of the United States, Brinkley squawked over how France, Germany, and Great Britain don’t “want Trump there.”
CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen explictly told viewers on Thursday that many of the angry chants by protesters in Hamburg were over capitalism and globalism. Brinkley didn’t seem to care about that stubborn fact, seeing as how it stood in the way of his narrative that there were “massive protests, a lot of it aimed not just at the G-20, but at Donald Trump, himself.”
“Our First Lady is holed up in a hotel and she's not able to go and meet the other wives of the G-20 and meanwhile, you know Putin is going to be getting a benefits out of this meeting with Trump. Here, we have the president of the United States sending crazy tweets about Podesta. It’s not a good scenario. We’re seeing a shrinking of American prestige in the world before our very eyes,” Brinkley added to end part one of his hissy fit.
Regarding the First Lady, Brinkley again spread either false or intentionally fake news. Reports were that protesters outside her hotel had rendered her trapped inside. So, it’s not like the President barred his wife from venturing to meet the other spouses of the G-20. Some clarification would have helped from Brinkley.
Cabrera invited him to comment on the meeting between the President and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was really just another softball.
Brinkley pushed more fake news, painting the picture for viewers that Russia affected the outcome of the 2016 election, telling Cabrera that Putin was the man “who ransacked our sacred institutions of free and fair elections.”
“Donald Trump’s just calling it an honor to see him. He's already kissing the ring of Putin. Putin is going to go back already a champion. If Donald Trump doesn't confront him on election hacking, then Putin got everything that he wanted out of it,” he continued.
Brinkley saved the most amusing part for the end, whining like a member of Greenpeace or the Sierra Club that Trump isn’t a supporter of the left’s climate change policies: “We were the world's leader in climate change and climate activism just a year ago. Now, Putin is going, meeting all the Europeans, saying I'm on your side and the United States isn't.”
Earlier in the hour, CNN counter-terrorism analyst Phil Mudd was slightly less unglued but still unhappy, also complaining about climate change not being an important topic for Trump. Mudd also spread fake news that Trump wasn’t harping on “what’s going on with Syria, what’s happening with North Korea,” and “American commitment to NATO.”
On Syria, reporters were leaking out via the Associated Press during this very show that the Trump-Putin meeting would result in a ceasefire over in Syria. Reports about North Korea being discussed have also been out there and Trump’s speech in Poland on Thursday was about the American commitment to NATO and Article V. But thanks for playing, CNN! Try again!
“It's almost like you go to a dinner party and yell out ‘my wife is fat.’ Everybody looks around the table and says, ‘who invited that guy?’ He's talking in disparaging terms about U.S. intelligence, about U.S. assessments of what happened with the American election, about what happened with a server from a Democratic Party in an international setting overseas. Everybody's got to be looking around and saying, what’s this guy thinking,” Mudd added.
Here’s the relevant transcript from CNN’s At This Hour on July 7:
CNN’s At This Hour
July 7, 2017
11:13 a.m. EasternANA CABRERA: Meantime, Phil, earlier, President Trump, today, was tweeting this and I quote: “Everyone [at the G-20] is talking about why John Podesta,” from the Hillary Clinton campaign, “refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA.” And then, just moments ago, the top ranking Democrat, Congressman Adam Schiff said: “Sure, that's the big talk. Not climate change or trade, but why didn't John Podesta give a server that wasn't his to the CIA.” Phil, your reaction?
PHIL MUDD: Well, I can't figure out. You go overseas and the conversations, as you just suggested, have to do with things like climate change, what's going on with Syria, what’s happening with North Korea. American commitment to NATO. Critical issues. I can't believe anybody knows what happened to the DNC server, much less his combinick on it. The critical aspect here that I think is odd is the President left the United States and he's airing American laundry overseas. It's almost like you go to a dinner party and yell out my wife is fat. Everybody looks around the table and says, “who invited that guy?” He's talking in disparaging terms about U.S. intelligence, about U.S. assessments of what happened with the American election, about what happened with a server from a Democratic Party in an international setting overseas. Everybody's got to be looking around and saying, what’s this guy thinking? It's just odd, Ana. It's weird.
(....)
11:30 a.m. Eastern
CABRERA: Douglas, what do you make about the president tweeting about internal politics essentially while he is on the world stage and seeing now this back and forth, what seems to be, a little juvenile, no?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: Extremely juvenile. You know, I did my doctorate at Georgetown in U.S. diplomatic history and the first thing you learn when you study diplomacy is an American president or senator, congressman doesn't dis their own country when they go abroad. That's what Donald Trump has done on this trip and this whole visit has been embarrassing. I mean, think about, the President of the President United States coming to Europe. Great Britain doesn't want trump there. France doesn't want him. Only Poland took him. He now is in Germany where he — the Germans — only eight percent of the German people like Donald Trump. You have massive protests, a lot of it aimed not just at the G-20, but at Donald Trump, himself. Our First Lady is holed up in a hotel and she's not able to go and meet the other wives of the G-2 and meanwhile, you know Putin is going to be getting a benefits out of this meeting with Trump. Here, we have the president of the United States sending crazy tweets about Podesta. It’s not a good scenario. We’re seeing a shrinking of American prestige in the world before our very eyes.
CABRERA: Do you see any way that, after this meeting, this isn't a win/win for Putin?
BRINKLEY: I think he wins. He’s already been called. Donald Trump — the guy who hacked our elections in 2016, who ransacked our sacred institutions of free and fair elections, Donald Trump’s just calling it an honor to see him. He's already kissing the ring of Putin. Putin is going to go back already a champion. If Donald Trump doesn't confront him on election hacking, then Putin got everything that he wanted out of it. We were the world's leader in climate change and climate activism just a year ago. Now, Putin is going, meeting all the Europeans, saying I'm on your side and the United States isn't. So, we’re — Putin gains automatically by this private time with our President.
