On Friday's New Day, CNN panel members were dismissive both of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump promising to protect homosexuals from terrorists, and of concerns about violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants. CNN political analyst David Gregory fretted that the GOP platform is the "harshest on gays and lesbians in the history of the party," and both he and fellow CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein ludicrously suggested that homicides committed by illegals are not so bad because they are mostly done through car accidents.
At 5:09 a.m. ET, after playing a clip of Trump's acceptance speech in which he suggested Hillary Clinton should be defeated rather than jailed as audience members chanted, "Lock her up!" co-host Chris Cuomo brought up Trump promising to protect the "LGBTQ" population from terrorism:
So, David, he stops them there, he won't call her "Crooked Hillary," and after his almost what seemed to be common sentiments about LGBTQ in this country right now, he looks out at the crowd and he says, "Thank you for applauding for that."
Gregory worried that Trump was only planning to side with homosexuals against "foreign terrorism" rather than support other gay rights issues as he began: "That was a nice grace note, although what he was saying is he'll protect gays and lesbians-"
Co-host Alisyn Camerota, also sounding unimpressed by Trump promising to protect gays from terrorism, injected: "From terrorism."
Gregory continued:
-from foreign terrorism. It's not like he went, I mean, he's got a party platform that's the harshest on gays and lesbians in the history of the party, so it's not like it was a big step out to support gay rights moving forward.
After Cuomo injected, "It was a nod to Orlando," Gregory added:
It was certainly a nod to Orlando. There's no question about it. Look, this whole week has been a kind of Roman colloseum-esque call to imprison Hillary Clinton, so one note of him saying, "Well, let's defeat her, let's not throw her in jail." There was still the effect of the entire week, but there was definitely an attempt in that moment for him to try a -- the idea of a pivot is so cliche, and I don't think that's what that was.
Moments later, Brownstein moved in to dismiss Republican concerns about crime both generally and involving illegal immigrants.
The other question is whether the portrait that he paints of America will resonate with people as actually where we are. You know, for his voters, there's no question, when you look at polling, his voters, Trump supporters are more likely to believe they will be the victim of terrorism, more likely to believe they'll be the victim of violent crime.
He then moved to downplay the crime problem, and suggested that being killed by illegal immigrants in car accidents was less important than being killed by illegal immigrants in other violent crimes:
But, you know, in 1968 -- clearly the model for the speech was Nixon's acceptance speech -- in 1968 we were in the middle of a period, toward the end of a period in which the violent crime rate actually doubled from 1960 to 1970. Since 1991, even with the uptick in murders in some cities in the last year, the violent crime rate is half of what it was in 1991 today.
And, you know, when you think about how often people are killed by undocumented immigrants, I mean, the fact that two of the three examples they had were car accidents kind of gives you a sense.
Suggesting that being killed by an illegal immigrant in car accident should not be included as "violent crimes," Gregory chimed in: "They're not violent crimes from undocumented immigrants in most cases."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, July 22, New Day on CNN:
CHRIS CUOMO: Now, in terms of whether or not there were some different inflection points, last night, they started chanting, "Lock her up." He stops them and says, "Let's defeat her." Let me just show you this again.
CHANTING AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Lock her up!
DONALD TRUMP: Let's defeat her in November, okay?
CUOMO: So, David, he stops them there, he won't call her "Crooked Hillary," and after his almost what seemed to be common sentiments about LGBTQ in this country right now, he looks out at the crowd and he says, "Thank you for applauding for that."
DAVID GREGORY: That was a nice grace note, although what he was saying is he'll protect gays and lesbians-
ALISYN CAMEROTA: From terrorism.
GREGORY: -from foreign terrorism. It's not like he went, I mean, he's got a party platform that's the harshest on gays and lesbians in the history of the party, so it's not like it was a big step out to support gay rights moving forward.
CUOMO: It was a nod to Orlando.
GREGORY: It was certainly a nod to Orlando. There's no question about it. Look, this whole week has been a kind of Roman colloseum-esque call to imprison Hillary Clinton, so one note of him saying, "Well, let's defeat her, let's not throw her in jail." There was still the effect of the entire week, but there was definitely an attempt in that moment for him to try a -- the idea of a pivot is so cliche, and I don't think that's what that was.
But, again, I think it was probably the best of his speech's crystalizing his overall world view. But what it lacked is sense of who he is, a sense of his biography, and a sense of getting beyond the notion of strongman. -- "There is chaos, I am strong man, I will fix it." Really? Well, how? Because there's a lot of discerning people who are going to wonder, "Well, just how exactly would you deal with some of these (inaudible)?"
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And there was probably less biography than in any acceptance speech that I have seen. It really only came in at the end. The other question is whether the portrait that he paints of America will resonate with people as actually where we are. You know, for his voters, there's no question, when you look at polling, his voters, Trump supporters are more likely to believe they will be the victim of terrorism, more likely to believe they'll be the victim of violent crime.
But, you know, in 1968 -- clearly the model for the speech was Nixon's acceptance speech -- in 1968 we were in the middle of a period, toward the end of a period in which the violent crime rate actually doubled from 1960 to 1970. Since 1991, even with the uptick in murders in some cities in the last year, the violent crime rate is half of what it was in 1991 today. And, you know, when you think about how often people are killed by undocumented immigrants, I mean, the fact that two of the three examples they had were car accidents-
MALE VOICE (EITHER GREGORY OR CUOMO) Right.
BROWNSTEIN: -kind of gives you a sense.
GREGORY: They're not violent crimes from undocumented immigrants in most cases.
BROWNSTEIN: So, you know, I mean, I think, again, for his core constituency, I think there is a sense of America in crisis. But whether, what he needs to, the piece that's missing from him are those white-collar white voters. He is underperforming signifnicantly relative to Republicans in the past.
And I think that, for many of them, this will not alleviate and maybe will even enforce their concern that he could be too divisive as President, which is one of the biggest problems he faces with them.
