In two separate segments on Monday morning’s New Day, CNN hosts Alisyn Camerota and John Berman gushed over former President Obama being invited to trash President Trump during a pair of softball CBS interviews on Sunday.
Rather than objectively remember recent electoral history, the leftist network continued its narrative of demonizing Trump while praising anyone with a “D” next to their name. CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny declared: “...the headline first and foremost, he says that President Trump should have conceded last week and of course we still haven't heard that at least directly from President Trump.”
It is well documented that the media hacks vastly preferred Obama as President over Donald Trump. So it is no surprise that they are gushing over his new book and any comments that he makes, treating him as an objective expert rather than the Democratic partisan that he is in reality.
The partisan network continued to swoon over Obama’s upcoming book and media appearances, including an interview with the Atlantic. During an interview with former Obama aide Reggie Love, Berman pushed for an attack on President Trump: “…when we hear him talk about the current situation with the transition and the election, he's disappointed, but how upset is he? … On a scale from one to ten what's his level of outrage here?”
Rather than objectively report the news, CNN continued to demand that Trump concede the 2020 election, refusing to consider the other sides point of view. So of course, a call from a former President especially fits their narrative. Berman snarky tried to characterized the President’s actions: “Yeah, not sure President Trump is listening to [Obama’s] advice.”
Zeleny further remarked:
…I think you're right, President Trump is not going to be taking advice from his predecessor in office, but we are hearing President Obama talk in ways that we have not heard him talk before. And he's trying to point out that civility in this country was not changed by President Trump, but he exasperated it.
While the words of a former President should be reported on, they should not be treated with the weight and deference the partisan network provided, especially given the blatant partisan motivation behind the remarks. Once again, the media ignored its own past reporting of the 2000 election, when it saw voter fraud everywhere.
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A transcript of the November 16th Coverage is included below:
New Day
11/16/20
6:47 AM ETJOHN BERMAN: This morning, former President Obama speaking out in a brand-new interview, insisting it's well past time for a defeated President Trump to concede the election.
[Cuts to 60 Minute interview]
BARACK OBAMA: A President is a public servant. They are temporary occupants of the office, by design. And when your time is up, then it is your job to put the country first and think beyond your own ego and your own interests and your own disappointments. My advice to President Trump is if you want, at this late stage in the game to be remembered as somebody who put country first, it's time for you to do the same thing.
[Cuts back to live]
BERMAN: Yeah, not sure President Trump is listening to that advice. CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins us now with much more on this interview. President Obama has a book, a lot of pages of new information coming out and he's speaking in some ways we haven't heard before, Jeff.
JEFF ZELENY [CNN Senior Washington Correspondent]: Good morning, John. 768 pages, to be exact. That's just volume I. That is coming out tomorrow. This really goes from his childhood to two weeks after the Bin Laden capture and killing in 2011. But in this, specifically, of course, he is talking a lot about this current conduct. He sees from the Trump administration and I think you're right, President Trump is not going to be taking advice from his predecessor in office, but we are hearing President Obama talk in ways that we have not heard him talk before. And he's trying to point out that the lack of civility in this country was not changed by President Trump, but he exasperated it. Listen to him compare him to his daughter's behavior would be like if they didn’t do something appropriate. Listen.
[Cuts to 60 Minute interview]
OBAMA: We would never accept that out of our own kids behaving that way if they lost. If my daughters in any kind of competition pouted and then accused the other side of cheating when they lost, when there was no evidence of it, we'd scold them. You know, I think that there has been this sense over the last several years that literally anything goes. And is justified in order to get power. And that's not unique to the United States. There are strongmen and dictators around the world who think, I can do anything to stay in power. I can kill people. I can throw them in jail. I can run phony elections. I can suppress journalists. But that's no who we're supposed to be.
[Cuts back to live]
ALISYN CAMEROTA: So, Jeff, there's that "60 minutes" interview. There's a new interview out this morning in "The Atlantic" where President Obama talks about sort of quintessential American manhood and how President Trump has broken that mold. What did he say?
ZELENY: Alisyn, this is pretty interesting. He's talking about the American heroes and men we've seen over the years, like John Wayne and folks like that. Of course, he's trying to draw a contrast to the current President, but, you know, these words are certainly striking when you hear them from Barack Obama, again, talking about a successor of his in the oval office. He says this. Let's take a look at these. He says, “the -- there is a notion that the man is true to his word, that he takes responsibility, that he doesn't complain, that he isn't a bully. In fact, he defends the vulnerable against bullies. So even if you're someone who's annoyed by wokeness and political correctness and wants men to be men again, and is tired about everyone complaining about the patriarchy, I thought that the model wouldn't be Ritchie-rich – the complaining, lying, doesn’t take responsibility for anything type of figure.” So, once again, President Obama going after his successor going after him in ways we haven't heard before. Of course we saw that he was starting to ramping that up in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, when he was campaigning for Joe Biden, but certainly continuing to go after him now. And this is just so striking given that a lot of the book is talking about his own transition to power. When George W. Bush was clearly welcoming to all of the Obamas. So, certainly a different moment here. But the headline first and foremost, he says that President Trump should have conceded last week and of course we still haven't heard that at least directly from President Trump. John and Alisyn?
BERMAN: Ritchie-rich?
ZELENY: Ritchie-rich!
BERMAN: I wonder who Reggie rich is in this scenario? Just very quickly Jeff. Any chance that President Obama and Joe Biden, the President-Elect, have been talking over the last several days since the election?
ZELENY: We do know they have spoken at least once, last Saturday they spoke when he called to congratulate him. Since then, I don't believe they have, because President Obama has been doing all of these interviews. But there's no question that he's always available for his advice. But also, their relationship generally is that President Obama stands back and is sort of offers advice if needed. But he does not think that Joe Biden needs his advice. And in terms of any role he'll play, he says he does not plan to play an official role in the Biden administration. He says if he did, Michelle will kill him.
New Day
11/16/20
8:48 AM ETALISYN CAMEROTA: In an interview with "60 minutes" last night President Barack Obama saying it's time for President Trump to concede the election.
[Cuts to 60 Minutes interview]
BARACK OBAMA: A President is a public servant. They are temporary occupants of the office by design and when your time is up then it is your job to put the country first and think beyond your own ego and your own interests and your own disappointments. My advice to President Trump is if you want at this late stage in the game to be remembered as somebody who put country first, it's time for you to do the same thing.
[Cuts to 60 Minutes interview]
ALISYN CAMEROTA: All right. Joining us now is Reggie love, President Obama's former special assistant and personal aide. Reggie, great to see you.
REGGIE LOVE [Fmr. Special Asst. & Personal Aide to President Obama]: Alisyn, thank you for having me on and John as well. I hope you guys are hanging in there.
JOHN BERMAN: Glad I snuck in. Thank you.
CAMEROTA: We are hanging in there at the moment. Before we get to President Obama's words last night, I know you spoke to him early on election day and I'm just curious what his mood was or what he said because the outcome was far from decided at that point.
LOVE: Yeah, I think he was pretty optimistic about people being engaged and involved in this upcoming election and the idea that we would have -- that there would be historic turnout and that people would believe in democracy and believe in the idea that there votes matter.
BERMAN: Obviously you know him better than most and when we hear him talk about the current situation with the transition and the election, he's disappointed, but how upset is he? Can you tell how worked up he is over this because sometimes it's hard to tell with the even keel. On a scale from one to ten what's his level of outrage here?
LOVE: Well, look, you know, I think that in the interview he does a really -- he very much explains this idea that democracy, even now imperfect and even though the country that we live in is an imperfect union, that we do all have a responsibility as -- not only as voters and constituents but also public officials and office holders to do everything that we can to continue to try to create a more perfect union and to hold up the principles that make democracy work. You know, I think his comments were pretty pointed that, you know, Trump has an opportunity to do that, though he hasn't done it yet, you know, I think that it's a responsibility that I think the President -- that President Obama believes President Trump currently has and I think when President Trump was elected I don't think Democrats or President Obama himself were extremely thrilled with that outcome, but nonetheless, you know, handled it with dignity and with grace and with understanding that his actions and how he had a transition of power had an impact on how democracy would play out. So, yeah, I think it's tough.
CAMEROTA: Hey, Reggie, have you had a chance to read any of President Obama's 768 tome of a –
BERMAN: That's just part one.
CAMEROTA: I know. I get it. Have you had a chance to read some passages?
LOVE: I have started reading it but have not finished it unfortunately. I feel very embarrassed to say that.
CAMEROTA: You're going to be in trouble! Because I have not read it yet, either, but Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic said that in it President Obama does something clever where he saves his best lines -- he assigns his best lines to his wife Michelle and to you. And I was wondering if you had approved any of those lines or seen any of it before publishing?
LOVE: I have seen some of the lines and I don't know if I got the best lines, but I do think that he said, look, I gave you some good quotes. I hope that, you know, I'm not overly embarrassed.
CAMEROTA: It sounds great. It sounds like you're being immortalized in a great way. Do you know any of them, any of the good lines?
LOVE: Well, I think that will be for the readers to determine which ones are the good ones.
BERMAN: They are all so great is what you're saying. I hear you. Listen, with Scott Pelley last night the former President talked -- took us back, actually, to 2006-2007 when then senator Obama made the decision to run for President and how difficult a decision it was for the Obama family and how unpopular it was for Michelle Obama or with Michelle Obama. So I want you to listen to this exchange. It was interesting.
[Cuts to 60 Minutes interview]
SCOTT PELLY: You quote here as saying "The answer is no, I do not want you running for President, god, Barack, when is it going to be enough?" [Spliced Clip] Why did that not stop you?
OBAMA: Look, it's a legitimate question. Keep in mind the context here. Just two years earlier I had run for the U.S. Senate in an unlikely race, two years before that I had run for congress.
PELLY: In a race you lost.
OBAMA: In a race I lost. A couple years before that I had run for the state senate. We have two young kids. Michelle is still working. And I asked myself in the book, you know, how much of this is just megalomania, how much of this is vanity.
[Cuts back to live]
BERMAN: So how much of that did you see during the campaign, Reggie?
LOVE: Well, look, I have to say that the comments around how he and Michelle talked about his decision to run for President, those comments were pretty new to me. It wasn't new around this idea of how much stress he was under around trying to maintain some sort of balance of being a father and husband during the campaign. You know, I can remember points in times where we would be on trips and, you know, you would have a bad story about someone saying why is Barack Obama running for President in early 2007, when it seemed a little more clear that Hillary Clinton might have been a safer choice or a better option, and him saying to Axelrod and to Robert Gibbs, I can't believe that I let you guys convince me into doing this, I could be home with my family. And I can remember me at times saying, well, look, sir, I'm having the time of my life. I think this is great for the country. But, look, I think, you know, if you look at -- if you remember some of the stories that Barack Obama used to talk about during the campaign, one of the ones that always struck me was that he had just paid off his student -- their student loans like very shortly before becoming President, right? And so when you think about the challenges that real families are facing around trying to, you know, balance the books and trying to do all of the things that they can do to be financially responsible, I think it's a very reasonable question.
BERMAN: Reggie, thank you so much for being with us this morning. It helps us put it all in perspective. I appreciate it.
