While ABC’s Good Morning America was asleep at the wheel on Monday morning having failed to cover California Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters’s call for Americans to physically confront members of the Trump administration, CNN’s New Day miraculously found nine minutes and 43 seconds for Waters.
There were hot takes that President Trump was to blame for enabling such unhinged behavior, but there were other moments where sanity ruled and even a strong exchange with co-host John Berman where a Democratic Congressman refused to condemn Waters’s ugly rhetoric.
The 6:00 a.m. Eastern hour saw New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman swiftly condemn Waters’s comments as “dangerous” and worse than uncivil:
This wasn't just I'm just going to ask you to leave my restaurant. This was crowd people in public. This is intimidate and get in their faces and their space. And I think that takes it to a very different level, especially when it’s a public officially saying it. This is an elected official making that point.
Haberman later added that what “Waters is talking about is, again, physical space, getting in people's spaces in a different way is different” and rises “to a different level than just insulting people.”
However, she spent a large portion of her comments blaming Trump and fretting that this is something that he can — wait for it — “seize on.”
“It is very hard for people to say — to be upset about the demonizing that the President is doing, and he is in the demagoging and demonizing and dehumanizing, particularly of immigrants, but frankly, anybody who gets in his way....I frankly think the images of kids being taken at the border and the amount of time that's going to take to get resolved is going to play a lot more in terms of Democrats turning out and in terms of whether Republicans turn out or stay home,” she added.
Co-host John Berman was more blunt, twice asserting that “it’s an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign.”
Senior political analyst John Avlon pointed out that this “will feed into narratives of moral equivalence and certainly, politics is personal now and it’s bitter, but that crowding out, first of all, it violates principles of public accommodation...but it invites greater ugliness.”
Like Haberman, Avlon tried to have it both ways and place blame on the President for his “tone” having “infect[ed] our politics.”
What ever happened to each person being responsible for their own actions? Are we all in kindergarten?
In the next hour, Real Clear Politics editor A.B. Stoddard noted that, if Democrats take the House, Waters would helm the House Financial Services Committee, so “[s]he is doing everything she can to prevent her own promotion” because “[t]his is beyond overreach.”
“It is so outrageous that she is trying to motivate voters on her side to be as divisive as President Trump. It is — I just — I just find it really unbelievable that this is the kind of thing they’re trying to stoke this mob mentality on the left. It’s — it’s just the exact thing that will drive turnout on the other side,” Stoddard argued.
Also in that hour, Berman pressed New York Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat on the matter. Check out the exchange by clicking “expand,” but needless to say, Espaillat didn’t fully disagree with her and appeared to blame Berman for distracting from other stories:
BERMAN: Are you comfortable with that, telling members of the administration, supporters of the President in this case, that they’re not welcome anymore in a restaurant?
ESPAILLAT: I love Aunty Maxine and she’s an iconic member of congress and a great woman. Look, I think we should not be trapped into these side storms, right, about whether or not people get angry at you at a restaurant, at a store. I have constituencies. Some of them love me and some of them don't like me that much. That's what the nature of public service is. So, to get sidetracked into this debate about whether someone was welcome at a restaurant takes our eyes off what's going on in America today.
BERMAN: We are laser focused on these 2,000 kids and we’ve been talking about them a great. Doesn’t mean we don’t have time to ask a question about what’s right and civil. I'm just asking are you comfortable with what she said?
ESPAILLAT: Look, I love Maxine Waters. I don't think that the base should become an episode of the apprentice. I think we should focus on the issues happening to these kids at the border. The cuts that are coming after we passed this tax scam that’s going to hurt medicare and medicaid. Those are the real issues of the American people. Maxine waters is entitled to her opinion and I respect that.
BERMAN: Do you wish she hadn't said it?
ESPAILLAT: What’s that?
BERMAN: Do you wish she hadn't said it?
ESPAILLAT: No. She has the right to say what she feels, and I support her.
After a quick swipe at Waters from former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent, the 8:00 a.m. hour featured fill-in co-host Erica Hill showing her disgust with Waters’s comments as she did in the previous hour, wondering “[h]ow is that helping” our discourse.
Clinton administration Press Secretary Joe Lockhart agreed, stating that it’s not “helping” because “there is a way to do this is, which is take to the streets” and then vote in November.
“Stop talking about it, stop whining, stop complaining, get to the polls and vote these people out who have enabled Trump...Let's get them out of office and that’s when things will change. I don’t think going up and yelling at someone in a restaurant is effective at all,” suggested Lockhart.
To see the relevant transcript from CNN’s New Day on June 25, click “expand.”
CNN’s New Day
June 25, 2018
6:14 a.m. EasternJOHN AVLON: He is very much in campaign mode and then, of course, we saw Maxine Waters over the weekend sort of elevating this issue as well, sort of calling for it to be part of the Resistance to the administration and that —
MAGGIE HABERMAN: And it’s also dangerous. The way she was —
AVLON: — of course.
ERICA HILL: Yeah.
HABERMAN: — describing it. It wasn’t just civil.
JOHN BERMAN: We’ll play it. I want to —
HABERMAN: It was to get in people’s faces.
BERMAN: — that. So, what we’re going to do is this cause I want people to hear what Maxine Waters said and I want to discuss if that, maybe, is giving the President exactly what he wants. So, we will talk about that.
(....)
HILL: California Representative Maxine Waters creating a controversy, sending a message to supporters about how to treat members of the Trump administration.
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSWOMAN MAXINE WATERS: And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.
HILL: We're back in now. Maggie Haberman, there is a lot in there, to say the least. Elijah Cummings also pushing back very strongly in that statement. That is the absolute worse thing that you could say. This is not how you should act.
BERMAN: It’s an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign.
HILL: Yeah.
BERMAN: Feels like an in-kind contribution, in this case. Sorry, I interrupted, Maggie.
HABERMAN: I mean, look, I think that — I think that — I think that, on its face, that's true and I think that, certainly. on its face.It is very hard for people to say — to be upset about the demonizing that the President is doing, and he is in the demagoging and demonizing and dehumanizing, particularly of immigrants, but frankly, anybody who gets in his way, but also calling for people. This wasn't just I'm just going to ask you to leave my restaurant. This was crowd people in public. This is intimidate and get in their faces and their space. And I think that takes it to a very different level, especially when it’s a public officially saying it. This is an elected official making that point. I do think that it gives Trump something else to seize on. I think what we have seen over the last few weeks, which is clear, and was already clear, but it is starker now, is this is going to be an unbelievably polarized midterms. I don't know who is actually going to have an advantage based on an incident like this. I frankly think the images of kids being taken at the border and the amount of time that's going to take to get resolved is going to play a lot more in terms of Democrats turning out and in terms of whether Republicans turn out or stay home. I think that’s, ultimately, going to be what matters more than what we just saw from Maxine Waters.
AVLON: Right, but at the same time, what Maxine Waters said is a long way from they go low, we go high.
HABERMAN: Yes.
AVLON: And it will feed into narratives of moral equivalence. And certainly, politics is personal now and it’s bitter. But that crowding out, first of all, it violates principles of public accommodation that, normally, Democrats would defend, but it invites greater ugliness and that, to your point, will actually play into Trump’s playbook.
BERMAN: Oh and I am reminded that the person who said they go low, we go high, was Michelle Obama trying to elect Hillary Clinton president, and it didn't work.
[AVLON LAUGHS]
HABERMAN: There were a lot of reasons.
AVLON: Yeah. I’m not sure it was that [INAUDIBLE] of a call.
BERMAN: Well, no, that’s what Democrats see and I’ve had this argument with, you know, Ted Lieu, Democrat from California —
AVLON: Yeah, sure, for example
BERMAN: — who tries to fight with the President on Twitter using the same types of insults that the President does. Can anyone out-Trump Trump when it comes to this type of insults?
HABERMAN: No. They can’t except this is — this is beyond insulting, to John’s point where Maxine Waters is talking about is, again, physical space, getting in people's spaces in a different way is different. That would take it to a different level than just insulting people, but it is true that we have seen for three years now, people who try to act like Trump end up just kind of. It's like they ran into an invisible shield and then they melt and it will, I think, be the same thing this time, but I think there is a difference between name-calling and what this has escalated to.
BERMAN: There’s a Marco Rubio joke, by the way. The melting thing, I got that.
AVLON: Really?
HABERMAN: Wow. That’s what you knew. Right in there.
AVLON: Subtle and impressive.
HABERMAN: That was very subtle.
HILL: John’s firing on all cylinders.
HABERMAN: So subtle I didn’t mean to.
HILL: But there it was. There’s also the question too of how much Americans are willing to take and sadly it seems that answer is a lot more than they would. While we may also say this is terrible, you shouldn't talk like that, you look at how often it’s happening and much attention it's getting and the, you know, this complaint about the lack of civility is well founded and yet —
AVLON: Well, tone comes from the top.
HILL: Yeah.
AVLON: And so you see the President's tone infecting our politics. But for folks who are saying we need to defend institutions, right? That, you know, that sense of simply doubling down and trying to out-Trump Trump for the dem — the lower-d Democratic debate in our country.
(....)
HILL: The reaction from people across the board on both sides has not been as polite or as measured. Here's some of what Maxine Waters had to say over the weekend. I want to play this first.WATERS: And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.
HILL: There's a lot in that moment to say at the very least. A.B., look, you start us off with this one. That is — that is some loaded rhetoric from a public officials.
A.B. STODDARD: Maxine Waters is poised to take over one of the most important positions in the separate and coequal branch of government as chair of the Financial Services Committee in the house. She is doing everything she can to prevent her own promotion. This is beyond overreach. [KAREM LAUGHS] It is so outrageous that she is trying to motivate voters on her side to be as divisive as President Trump. It is — I just — I just find it really unbelievable that this is the kind of thing they’re trying to stoke this mob mentality on the left. It’s — it’s just the exact thing —
KAREM: Amen.
STODDARD: — that will drive turnout on the other side and she's — she’s — this is just — this is exactly the example that Maggie was talking about and we have talked about here so many times. People sort of end up, you know, behaving like the President and they shoot themselves in the foot.
BERMAN: John?
AVLON: This is — this is so —
BRIAN KAREM: Well, it comes from the top.
AVLON: Hang on, Brian. One second because, you know, Amy is raising the election and that’s in the backdrop of everything,140 days out and midterm tend to be high intensity, low turnout. If Republicans are feeling a bit divided about the President, maybe a bit demoralized about the lack of the Republican Party in Congress standing up for the President, this is exactly the kind of thing that’s going to get them motivated because it will create an venir of moral equivalence and if we get to a place as a country where it is open season on anyone if they serve in an administration in the public where mob rule starts being advocated by elected officials. That is bad for everybody and it’s the opposite of, as you pointed out, of Michelle Obama’s they go low, we go high.
BERMAN: The Republicans running on the farm-to-table ticket.
(....)
BERMAN: I do — I do — I want to cover one other subject here because it’s important cause we have you here. You’re a Democratic member of Congress. We know Sarah Sanders was turned away at a restaurant Friday night. This isn’t so much about Sarah Sanders here, but Maxine Waters, who’s a powerful member of your party, powerful member of the caucus. I just want to play you what she said about how she feels administration members should be treated. Let's listen.
WATERS: And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.
BERMAN: Are you comfortable with that, telling members of the administration, supporters of the President in this case, that they’re not welcome anymore in a restaurant?
DEMOCRATIC NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN ADRIANO ESPAILLAT: I love Aunty Maxine and she’s an iconic member of congress and a great woman. Look, I think we should not be trapped into these side storms, right, about whether or not people get angry at you at a restaurant, at a store. I have constituencies. Some of them love me and some of them don't like me that much. That's what the nature of public service is. So, to get sidetracked into this debate about whether someone was welcome at a restaurant takes our eyes off what's going on in America today.
BERMAN: We are laser focused on these 2,000 kids and we’ve been talking about them a great. Doesn’t mean we don’t have time to ask a question about what’s right and civil. I'm just asking are you comfortable with what she said?
ESPAILLAT: Look, I love Maxine Waters. I don't think that the base should become an episode of the apprentice. I think we should focus on the issues happening to these kids at the border. The cuts that are coming after we passed this tax scam that’s going to hurt medicare and medicaid. Those are the real issues of the American people. Maxine waters is entitled to her opinion and I respect that.
BERMAN: Do you wish she hadn't said it?
ESPAILLAT: What’s that?
BERMAN: Do you wish she hadn't said it?
ESPAILLAT: No. She has the right to say what she feels, and I support her.
(....)
CHARLIE DENT: Look, I am not for the Democrats taking the House. After watching Maxine Waters diatribe there, I think that gives me a lot of pause about putting her in charge of the Financial Services Committee.
(....)
HILL: But then again we have Maxine Waters speaking up on it and saying, let's take this a step further. Let's keep it going. The next time you see an administration official, you know, yell at them. Cause a commotion. Cause a scene. They shouldn't be eating anywhere. How is that helping?
JOE LOCKHART: I don't think it is helping and I don't agree with Congresswoman Waters’ approach here. I think there is a way to do this is, which is take to the streets. I know that there’s a big protest planned around the country for next weekend. That’s where you do it and probably the best thing you can do is in November. Get to the polls. Stop talking about it, stop whining, stop complaining, get to the polls and vote these people out who have enabled Trump, who have sat silently while we’ve done the travel ban, while Trump has praised neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, while we’ve separated women and children — parents from their children. Let's get them out of office and that’s when things will change. I don’t think going up and yelling at someone in a restaurant is effective at all.
