Moments after President Trump’s prime time address to the nation to make his case for greater border security Tuesday night, CNN ran “fact-check” after “fact-check” which they claimed proved the President was lying about a whole host of things, while conveniently staying away from his stated efforts to compromise with Democrats. One obnoxious “fact-checks” came from chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta regarding whether or not Trump had a “heart and soul.”
In the midst of CNN’s analysis of the address, Prime Time host Chris Cuomo went to Acosta, who was outside the White House, for his opinion (a.k.a. “fact-check”). “[W]hen he talks about having a heart and soul,” Acosta prefaced towards the end of his rant, “[Y]ou know, a lot of Democrats and even a lot of Republicans would respond -- and they said this on our air Chris -- that locking up children in cages on the border, putting them in jail-like settings on the border, that is heartless that is soulless.”
Shortly before that, Acosta discounted Trump’s appeals for compromise and noted a shift on how the wall would now be become a steel barrier by claiming nothing new was said. “Chris, this just goes back to what we were all anticipating before this address and that is that this was primarily going to be recycled rhetoric from the President's rallies and his immigration speeches and I think that's pretty much what we got,” he chided.
Acosta also leaned on liberal talking points to suggest Democrats wouldn’t support a steel barrier either:
Now, one thing I will tell you, he did say at one point during this address, Chris, he said that Democrats asked for the steel barrier. He said, “At the request of Democrats it will be a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall.” I just talked to a senior Democratic aid up on Capitol Hill that said: “no, we as a party did not ask for a steel barrier”. As they have been saying time and again, they don't want a wall and they don't want to reward the President for the shutdown by giving him a wall.
But shockingly, Cuomo fact-checked his “fact-checker,” accurately quipping, “Although, they have financed steel barriers, which are the ones that are in place right now. It’s amazing how everybody’s trying to forget the history here.”
“The fencing—absolutely—Democrats and Republicans have supported that kind of fencing along the border and repairing the fencing, making those kinds of repairs along the border,” Acosta admitted before trying to salvage his false claim by citing an anonymous Democratic source. “But the President said tonight that Democrats made this request and I talked to a senior Democratic aid that said that's just not accurate.”
CNN has become so entrenched in their Trump Derangement Syndrome, that they’re “fact-checking” whether or not the President has feelings and emotions like a normal human being. This is CNN.
The transcript is below, click "expand" below:
CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time
January 8, 2019
9:30 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: Let's get some context of how the White House feels that this went over tonight and whether or not this moved the needle for them. We have our chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta. Jim, what are you hearing and what did you think from what you heard?
JIM ACOSTA: Well Chris, I think that address probably should have come with a surgeon general's warning. It was hazardous to the truth. There were a number of claims that President made in that speech that are just not going to stand up to the facts. You mentioned a couple of them.
One of them being this thing that he said over and over again that the new trade deal with Mexico is going to somehow pay for the wall. Chris this just goes back to what we were all anticipating before this address and that is that this was primarily going to be recycled rhetoric from the President's rallies and his immigration speeches and I think that's pretty much what we got.
He also continued to paint immigrants as criminals and killers and so on when they come across the border illegally. And you know, that's something he has basically said since he launched his bid for the presidency when he described Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals and he said “and some I suppose are good people.” Not much has changed in terms of the President’s rhetoric on this. And I think that was pretty clear in this speech.
Now, one thing I will tell you, he did say at one point during this address, Chris, he said that Democrats asked for the steel barrier. He said, “At the request of Democrats it will be a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall.” I just talked to a senior Democratic aid up on Capitol Hill that said “no, we as a party did not ask for a steel barrier”. As they have been saying time and again, they don't want a wall and they don't want to reward the President for the shutdown by giving him a wall.
CUOMO: Although, they have financed steel barriers, which are the ones that are in place right now. It’s amazing how everybody’s trying to forget the history here. That bollard that’s there.
ACOSTA: The fencing—absolutely—Democrats and Republicans have supported that kind of fencing along the border and repairing the fencing, making those kind of repairs along the border. But the President said tonight that Democrats made this request and I talked to a senior Democratic aid that said that's just not accurate. And so time and again -- and we anticipated this before the President’s address tonight -- that he would use this opportunity -- very valuable prime time programming on all the networks – to, once again, recycle this rhetoric from the campaign trail, the rallies, and so on and also add into that witch's brew a lot of claims that don't turn out to be true. And the President is guilty of it once again. And for those folks that thought, “you know what, maybe tonight he'll turnover a new leaf and maybe they'll run this through the fact checkers,” it just didn't happen.
Blaming Democrats for this shutdown, he said in the Oval Office he would take ownership of the shutdown. And when he talks about having a heart and soul, you know, a lot of Democrats and even a lot of Republicans would respond -- and they said this on our air Chris -- that locking up children in cages on the border, putting them in jail-like settings on the border, that is heartless that is soulless. So my guess is after this address is chewed-over over the next couple of days, we're going to find ourselves basically right where we were, this shutdown dragging on, unless the president somehow caves in all of this. I saw no indication of that in that address tonight, Chris.
