Remember, folks, CNN wants you to think that CNN Tonight’s Don Lemon was merely a “CNN anchor” and an objective journalist instead of a left-wing pundit. Keep that in mind as, while opening Wednesday’s show, he gloated about how the President’s suffering a “losing streak” to the point that he put on an “embarrassing” performance in the Rose Garden.
After showing off a graphic meant to mock the one the President used concerning the Mueller probe, Lemon began a nearly-eight-minute rant by fretting that “[s]o even for this President, even for this President, this was an embarrassing display” and questioned whether the President was “capable of being embarrassed by his own behavior at all.”
Mocking the President’s claim that he doesn’t “do cover-ups,” Lemon proclaimed that this “may turn out to be the — I am not a crook moment for this President.” He added:
Remember when Richard Nixon said that? Remember how that worked out for him? The fact is that this administration is trying to hide documents, trying to prevent witnesses from testifying, defying all subpoenas. Otherwise known as a cover-up.
“The Speaker's really getting under the President's skin. Yet the White House expects you to believe that disgraceful show in the Rose Garden that it wasn't a stunt, that it wasn't planned and designed to, as usual, distract from the President's failure. This time to put together a deal on infrastructure,” Lemon continued, teeing up a quote from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Lemon agreed that the investigations launched by congressional Democrats are all perfectly reasonable “oversight which is Congress's job, but the man who's supposed to be the leader of the free world threw a temper tantrum and refused to work with Democratic leaders, which is his job.”
He cited the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama as having continued to function despite investigative opposition. Not surprisingly, he took a dig at Republicans and appeared to dismiss the Obama administration’s Benghazi and Fast and Furious scandals:
Barack Obama made deals with Republicans in the midst of investigation after investigation. You guys forget those years, right? Did you forget all the Benghazi investigations, all the Fast and Furious investigations? Yeah, I'm going to make him a one-term President on day one? Do you guys forget? Do you? Short memories. I remember it, but this President threw a temper tantrum[.]
The shameless partisan continued to mock the President’s state of affairs (click “expand”):
LEMON: This is a President who really, really does not like to lose.
TRUMP [on 05/14/19]: You know what, you want to know something, do you want to know something? We always win. We always win.
LEMON: Well, the dirty little not so secret is [WHISPERS] he's not winning. He's not winning. Though he may have escaped the worst from the Mueller investigation with help from his trusty Attorney General William Barr. The fact is, right now the President is on a losing streak and it's not just walking away from any hope of an infrastructure deal. The President suffering his second big legal setback this week. Maybe that's what this is all about. Maybe he wants to just change the subject so we're not — we’re not just focusing on the two big legal setbacks, I don't know.
Before going to a commercial break, Lemon boasted of the President’s failure to secure the country’s southern border and protect America from the flow of illegal immigration: “Some builder this President is, huh? Some dealmaker. The big question tonight, was the President's tantrum today, his refusal to work with Democrats on anything, was that a declaration of war? And if so, what happens now?”
Talk about a prick.
To see the relevant transcript from May 22's CNN Tonight, click “expand.”
CNN Tonight
May 22, 2019
10:04 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Don’s Take; Trump Storms Out of Meeting with Dems, Goes on Tirade After Pelosi Accuses Him of a ‘Cover-Up’]
DON LEMON: So even for this President, even for this President, this was an embarrassing display. If he were capable of being embarrassed by his own behavior at all, this President, who regularly resorts to bullying, name calling, just took his ball and he went home, walked out of a scheduled White House meeting with two top Democrats in Congress after he found out that Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused him of a cover-up.
NANCY PELOSI: We believe that the President of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.
LEMON: Here's what a source is telling CNN, that the President was incensed when he heard that and that source saying despite the President's dog and pony show in the Rose Garden this really wasn't about investigations. It was all about the President being angry at Pelosi. It was all about this —
DONALD TRUMP: I don't do cover-ups.
LEMON: — which may turn out to be the — I am not a crook moment for this President. Remember when Richard Nixon said that? Remember how that worked out for him? The fact is that this administration is trying to hide documents, trying to prevent witnesses from testifying, defying all subpoenas. Otherwise known as a cover-up. Listen to the House Speaker.
PELOSI: In plain sight, in the public domain, this President is obstructing justice, and he's engaged in a cover-up and that could be an impeachable offense. [SCREEN WIPE] And we want to have — to give the truth to the American people, but in striving to get that the intervention that the — that the obstruction that the administration is engaged in, in some, as they say, the cover-up is frequently worse than the crime.
LEMON: So, here's what's going on. The Speaker's really getting under the President's skin. Yet the White House expects you to believe that disgraceful show in the Rose Garden that it wasn't a stunt, that it wasn't planned and designed to, as usual, distract from the President's failure. This time to put together a deal on infrastructure. This is the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): It's clear that this was not a spontaneous move on the President's part. It was planned. When we got in the room, the curtains were closed. The President, there was a place for him at the front so he could stand and attempt to tell us why he wouldn't do infrastructure and of course, then he went to the Rose Garden with prepared signs that had been printed up long before our meeting.
LEMON: Chuck Schumer, just a moment, right here on this program, but here is the thing. Even the President's own party wasn't on board with his infrastructure plans, they weren't, his own acting chief of staff questioned whether the President could make a deal. So now the President says he is refusing to work with Democrats on anything, until the investigations stop. Those investigations, I should point out, are oversight which is Congress's job, but the man who's supposed to be the leader of the free world threw a temper tantrum and refused to work with Democratic leaders, which is his job. Walk and chew gum at the same time. Other administrations have done it. Bill Clinton certainly did it. He made deals with Republicans while he was being investigated and impeached. George W. Bush made deals with Nancy Pelosi and Democrats while his administration was being investigated. Barack Obama made deals with Republicans in the midst of investigation after investigation. You guys forget those years, right? Did you forget all the Benghazi investigations, all the Fast and Furious investigations? Yeah, I'm going to make him a one-term President on day one? Do you guys forget? Do you? Short memories. I remember it, but this President threw a temper tantrum and there is more shade coming from Nancy Pelosi, in a letter to her colleagues she says: “We wanted to give the President the opportunity to launch an historic infrastructure initiative that could stand in the — in the pantheon” — “in the pantheon” of American history alongside the bold initiatives of Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower.” That's got a smart for the self-proclaimed student of history. This is a President who really, really does not like to lose.
TRUMP [ON 05/14/19]: You know what, you want to know something, do you want to know something? We always win. We always win.
LEMON: Well, the dirty little not so secret is [WHISPERS] he's not winning.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Don’s Take; POTUS Suffers a Second Legal Setback; Will His Financial Secrets Be Exposed?]
He's not winning. Though he may have escaped the worst from the Mueller investigation with help from his trusty Attorney General William Barr. The fact is, right now the President is on a losing streak and it's not just walking away from any hope of an infrastructure deal. The President suffering his second big legal setback this week. Maybe that's what this is all about. Maybe he wants to just change the subject so we're not — we’re not just focusing on the two big legal setbacks, I don't know. Second big legal setback this week, a federal judge in New York refused today to block subpoenas from the House Intel on financial services panels from Trump's financial records, from Deutsche Bank and Capital One, the judge ruling the subpoenas are, “clearly pertinent to Congress's work.” That’s after another judge ruled Monday that the President's accounting firm has to comply with a subpoena and turn over seven years’ worth of financial records. Now it looks like both sides, as he likes to say, both sides, both sides have agreed to expedite that case, which could work in Democrats’ favor if — if it means that they can settle this issue while they still hold power in the House. I could go on. There’s the President's trade war with China that's costing Americans more and more each day. The saber rattling with Iran that could send thousands of U.S. troops to the Middle East, but speaking of infrastructure, infrastructure week always seems to be some kind of disaster, doesn’t it? Remember the President's last big infrastructure project, that was his border wall, the one he shut down the government for — for 35 days to get that — his border wall? Well, it turns out just 1.7 miles of wall — 1.7 miles have gone up so far with the $1.57 billion Congress appropriated last year. Some builder this President is, huh? Some dealmaker. The big question tonight, was the President's tantrum today, his refusal to work with Democrats on anything, was that a declaration of war? And if so, what happens now?
