CNN's Piers Morgan tried to get Ann Coulter to admit she's a "female Glenn Beck" and "part of the problem" for her "divisive" and "partisan" rhetoric, on Wednesday's Piers Morgan Live.
Glenn Beck recently expressed regret that during his time at Fox News, he "played a role unfortunately in helping tear the country apart." Morgan called Coulter the "female Glenn Beck" for her "partisan rhetoric" and wondered if she regretted that. [Video below the break. Audio here.]
"I mean, do you, like Glenn Beck, look back on some of the stuff you said and thought maybe I could've curled in there in a bit, just calm things a bit and been less polarizing?" Morgan posed to Coulter.
"I'm not the female Glenn Beck," Coulter responded. "He should be more like me. A uniter."
Morgan kept badgering Coulter, though. "Every single viewer watching this knows you've gone too far," he insisted. "You're being increasingly divisive, which is part of the problem, right?" he asked later.
"You're part of the problem. I am the solution," answered Coulter.
Morgan did confess that he crossed lines in his crusade for gun control:
"Yeah, we've mentioned guns and when I've done the guns debate, I can tell that when I get over-angry and get a little bit abusive to the gun people, that it actually doesn't help the debate. That actually all it does is intensify the polarization and it means any kind of compromise becomes less likely."
Below is a partial transcript of the segment:
CNN
PIERS MORGAN LIVE
1/22/14
PIERS MORGAN: We're going to start with our big story which is the other prince of darkness. This is a joke I can keep retelling because it will always get a laugh. The one with big opinions about – just about everything, most of them really not really required but she gives us to them anyway. Ann Coulter joins me now. How are you?
ANN COULTER, author, "Never Trust a Liberal Over Three": Fine. Thank you. And you?
MORGAN: I should plug your book because otherwise there isn't any reason you have to come out, isn't it?
COULTER: Yes. Exactly. Thank you.
MORGAN: So it's "Never Trust A Liberal Over 3," best-selling author obviously. Let's get into this, I find this fascinating. Glenn Beck said this on some show. I'm not sure who she is. Megyn or somebody on Fox.
COULTER: Megyn Kelly, she has a huge show and you don't know who she is.
(Video Clip)
GLENN BECK, The Blaze founder and chairman: Go back and be more uniting in my language because I think I played a role unfortunately in helping tear the country apart and it's not who we are.
Now I look back and I realize if we could've talked about the uniting principles a little bit more instead of just the problems, I think I would look back on it a little more fondly.
(End Video Clip)
MORGAN: There we are. A great right wing pundit in America finally admitting that he has, his words not mine, torn this country apart with his partisan rhetoric. You're another one, the female Glenn Beck.
COULTER: I'm not the female Glenn Beck. In fact, I was just going to tell you, I think I agree with him. He should be more like me. A uniter.
(...)
MORGAN: Let's talk seriously though, about the polarization of political debate in America, because Glenn Beck was quite brave I thought to say what he said. And, if I'm being self-reflective, which doesn't happen very often but I may as well throw it out there. Yeah, we've mentioned guns and when I've done the guns debate, I can tell that when I get over-angry and get a little bit abusive to the gun people, that it actually doesn't help the debate. That actually all it does is intensify the polarization and it means any kind of compromise becomes less likely.
I mean, do you, like Glenn Beck, look back on some of the stuff you said and thought maybe I could've curbed in there in a bit, just calm things a bit and been less polarizing?
COULTER: I was definitely too nice to Hillary Clinton.
MORGAN: (Laughter)
COULTER: I think I was overly enthusiastic about Chris Christie without waiting to hear his amnesty position.
MORGAN: You never supported Chris Christie.
COULTER: No. I was the last (Unintelligible) right-winger to be supporting him, and then he came out for amnesty.
MORGAN: What do you regret, though? I mean do you have feelings like Glenn Beck?
COULTER: I just told you!
MORGAN: They're not proper regrets. They're regrets you haven't gone harder. Are there any times you've gone too far?
COULTER: No. Of course not.
MORGAN: Every single viewer watching this knows you've gone too far.
COULTER: No I haven't.
MORGAN: You don't think you've ever gone too far?
COULTER: No. No. No.
MORGAN: Not a single regret about anything you've ever said?
COULTER: In public? About politics? Absolutely 100 percent not, unless you're going to go back to when I was 14 and briefly was a libertarian. (Laughter)
MORGAN: I can't imagine the horror of you as a young libertarian.
COULTER: But then I turned 15 and it was gone.
MORGAN: Do you have any empathy with what Glenn Beck says? Forgetting your own refusal to accept any of the responsibility, but –
COULTER: I told you I'm a uniter. I think it's fantastic that he's going to try to be more like me.
MORGAN: But he's not going to be like you. He's going to be the complete opposite to you. He actually wants to be, it sounds to me, less divisive.
COULTER: Look, I don't know what he's talking about and neither do you so we're talking about abstractions if he could – if we knew if he would say look, right here, I shouldn't have said that. I could say I agree or I disagree but I don't know. And the abstract – I do his radio show, I do his TV show, I think he's funny, we disagree about some things. He's been a little tough on me. And, Glenn, I think you should take that back.
MORGAN: But what do you say – let's try and be serious for a moment, right?
COULTER: I am being totally serious.
MORGAN: You're not. You're being increasingly divisive, which is part of the problem, right?
COULTER: You're part of the problem. I am the solution.
MORGAN: I'm happy to be part of the problem. You're never going to be the solution to anything. What he's saying is, look, the problem with political debate in Washington and America right now is that on almost every hot issue both sides take such polarizing positions.
COULTER: No. No. No. I know. I know. I know what you're saying –
MORGAN: That compromise is never possible.
