On Monday, during a campaign stop in Nebraska, President Trump made remarks about the war in Iran, which, according to the White House, has led to a “media freakout", which, "is not rooted in reality.” On CNN's The Arena on Tuesday, host Kasie Hunt used those remarks, and others by Trump, in a segment where Ana Navarro would claim that the President is, "increasingly unwell", doing and saying things that are "cuckoo, crazy, certifiable insane."
If you didn't know better, you might have thought you were watching a paid political advertisement for the Democrat party as Hunt began her show, promising startling new revelations from Trump, as she played an edited clip from his Nebraska speech.
HUNT: We are now just four weeks from election day. Gas prices, as you probably know, remain high. Diesel is even higher. And now President Donald Trump has offered this startling new way to justify his decision to start a war with Iran.
TRUMP CLIP: Stop them from having a nuclear weapon, so I was writing and I made a speech there, and I passed the gas station $1.95 a gallon. I passed another station, $1.85 a gallon. We'll have it lower than that in a very short period of time.
No startling justification there.
TRUMP CLIP: Remember, with the war just artificial, it's a little bit high. It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.... They can take out a city, let them take, let it let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay. And it's going to be over very soon.
No startling justification for his decision to start the Iran war there either. Did she mean the remarks referencing Los Angeles and San Diego? Who knows, but, as part of the media freakout, Hunt paused for 2 full seconds, shook her head, raised her eyebrows and appeared to sigh, before presenting Democrat reaction to Trumps words, and the White House reaction, and then turning to other recent Trump remarks.
HUNT: But this is not the only instance where the President's recent messaging has, let's say, strayed from the economic issues that voters say are top of mind. In just the last few days, he has called one Democratic candidate a jihadist. He has attacked another with a transphobic slur. He has criticized Fox News for not being loyal enough. He has given out a Republican Senator's cell phone number in a fight over Daylight Saving Time, and he's refused to return millions in taxpayer money that he used to create and run ads praising himself.
Of course Hunt gave only the headlines, no specifics, no context to any of the comments she cited, before playing still another edited clip of Trump, "praising himself", and then mocked the clip, tilting her head, raising her eyebrows again, and saying, "okay", before moving on to her panel.
She began with CNN's Sr. Political Analyst Ron Brownstein, who probably did not have the take Hunt had hoped for, on Trump's most controversial remarks.
HUNT: (LAUGHS) How's it going over, back home?
BROWNSTEIN: You know, as you can imagine, his syntax was so convoluted that the White House explanation of what he really meant is plausible. Um, but, you know, every part--
HUNT: Very generous. (LAUGHS)
Hunt played more clips designed to make Trump look bad and eventually brought The View's Ana Navarro, also a CNN political commentator, into the mix, and she unloaded.
NAVARRO: Nobody has said what to me is plainly obvious. He is increasingly unwell. The things he is doing and he is saying are cuckoo, crazy, certifiable insane. And if it was anybody other than Donald Trump saying these things and doing these things, their family would have them committed or at the very least checked for what the hell might be going on.
Why we measure Donald Trump with a different stick and let him get away with completely unhinged behavior is beyond me. He is the President of the United States and has the nuclear codes. That we are here debating the fact that he invited Iran to take out two American cities because they are blue cities and they're in a blue state that he doesn't like, though he has a golf course in L-A, is insane, you guys.... So can we just call a spade a spade and say this man is not well?
Of course Kasie Hunt did not challenge one single claim made by Navarro, or ask how she felt about Joe Biden having the nuclear codes. Why would she? It fit right in. This is CNN!
