Ex-Dem Joe Lieberman Pushes Back on Media’s Spin that Trump Inspired Synagogue Shooter

October 29th, 2018 1:45 PM

All Monday morning, CNN spent their time blaming President Trump for the horrific synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh by an avowed anti-Semite over the weekend. CNN’s John Berman tried to get just about every guest on CNN’s three hour morning show New Day, to denounce Trump as inspiring a murderer, but former Democrat vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman wasn’t buying Berman's spin.

After an interview with Kellyanne Conway, a liberal panel attacked her for not blaming Trump or “taking responsibility” for the synagogue shooting. Berman then tried to bait guest Joe Lieberman, who now identifies as an Independent and is Jewish himself, into doing the same. The CNN journalist ludicrously attempted to tie President Trump’s campaign attacks on Democrat billionaire donor George Soros as “sending a message” of anti-Semitism:

Do you believe that there are those who perceive those to be anti-Semitic dog whistles when you see one of the closing ads of his campaign, George Soros, Janet Yellen, Goldman Sachs, with dark, ominous pictures, talking about the money and the international banking. Is that something that sends a message?

But Lieberman suggested groupthink on social media was really the motivation behind the “hateful loner”’s mass murder attack, even pointing out that the shooter’s social media history said he didn’t like President Trump. Lieberman went on to call out both parties and the media for contributing to the “division in society” while arguing that when Trump calls for unity it needs to be recognized by the media:

Yeah. The first thing I want to say is that in my opinion, this brutal murder in Pittsburgh over the weekend really was committed by a hateful loner, who was probably more stimulated by anti-Semitism in social media than by anything else going on around him. He was against President Trump….But more generally, I think all of us have to -- beginning with the president, Democrat and Republican leaders in Congress, people in the media, conventional media and the more unconventional social media have to ask ourselves to what extent are we contributing to the division in our society? Charlie Dent and I work together in a group called no labels, trying to overcome the way that parties have become like warring tribes. This goes beyond that, of course. None of us want that. So what do I say when the president makes a constructive statement about unity, let's praise him for it and urge him to build on it and think about ways in which he can act so that no one can ever say he somehow was responsible for violence or hatred.

“I appreciate that. And I think we all did play the statements that the president made condemning anti-Semitism and calling on unity. But at the same time, you know, he’s not an inf--this is not reinforcing good behavior to him so that can you prevent the bad behavior,” Berman snarked back, before rephrasing the question to his second guest, former Representative Charlie Dent.