On Thursday night President Trump addressed the Nation from The White House, focusing on election interference and announcing the release of documents that speak to the matter, and as has been pointed out, the major broadcast networks along with CNN, did not carry the speech. That led to an interesting situation on Friday's edition of CNN's The Situation Room, where Democrat strategist James Carville ripped those, including CNN, who chose not to carry the speech, although he had an ulterior motive for speaking out.
Host Wolf Blitzer began the segment with a clip from California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose astute analysis of Trump's speech was, "He wants to rig the election in 2026. He knows he's going to lose. He needs to rig the election before one vote was cast. That's what that whole thing was about."
Blitzer then brough on Carville, who may have shocked viewers at first.
BLITZER: How would you advise members of your Democratic Party to handle President Trump's speech last night and rebut the work of his administration as we get into the full swing of the midterm election season, the midterm elections coming up in November?
CARVILLE: I would advise them to attack CNN, attack ABC, attack NBC, attack MS NOW, because they didn't air the speech.
What? Was this James Carville? His next sentence proved it was indeed.
CARVILLE: And I think the President of the United States acting loonier than a tune is newsworthy. I don't think we should have hidden that from the American people. I think there should have been blanket coverage of it. He's literally off his rocker. And there's no other way to describe this.
Several questions come to mind, that veteran journalist Blitzer could have followed up with, but the best he could come up with, was this softball.
BLITZER: So, you think we should have given him more publicity? Is that what you're saying?
CARVILLE: I'm absolutely saying that. I think the decision not to air that speech by CNN and other networks is not being what's really newsworthy. And this guy, he's gone. He was advised by his own staff in a story that I read, I think it was in Daily Beast and Politico, that don't be crazy.
Carville took out of context what the Politico story actually addressed. In talking about trying to get Trump not to dwell on the 2020 election, and quoting an unnamed source, the story noted, “It was as on the rails as possible,” said a White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking. “The senior team just talked and prepped him. I think they explained the way to be taken seriously is not to be crazy.”
Far from noting the misrepresentation, Blitzer's two word response, before attempting to defend CNN's edited coverage of the speech was simply pathetic.
BLITZER: Interesting analysis. We did air a lot of the newsy excerpts from the speech, and then we had full analysis and fact-checking going on.
In fact CNN aired The Source with Kaitlin Collins while Trump spoke, and brought on John King to trash the speech when it was over.
Carville wasn't finished. Blitzer asked him to respond to a clip from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), speaking prior to the speech, about the speech, but he went right back on the attack against Trump.
BLITZER: So, now post-speech, James, what's your view of the leader Schumer's assessment?
CARVILLE: I think he knows he's going to lose.... And, of course, he knows he's going to lose, but he couldn't execute. What he was trying to do, he couldn't execute it....He's literally crazy.
Carville then took aim at the networks who did not air the full speech.
CARVILLE: I think the mistake was made by the networks to not show it in its entirety so people could see him in full and understand just how far this man has gone down the road to insanity. I would say there was nothing normal about that. And you can do it with clips and you can get people on, but there's nothing like people sitting there watching the whole thing to tell them what's really going on.
James Carville is James Carville, we know what political side he's on. The more disturbing aspect of this interview is that long time veteran journalist Wolf Blitzer just sat there, with no pushback on any of Carville's outrageous claims. It certainly looked like we know what side Blitzer is on as well. This is CNN!
