Journalists on CNN, Thursday, made no effort to disguise the disdain and rage they hold for the White House. Don Lemon compared Sean Spicer to the Adam Sandler movie Billy Madison. After playing an extended clip of March 16 press conference, Lemon mocked Spicer: “Did anyone see Billy Madison? The game show scene? ‘Everyone in this room is dumber for having listened to that.’"
To the audience, he added, "I hope that you're not dumber and I hope we're providing information.” Later, White House reporter Jim Acosta fretted about how the administration is “unlike any we've ever dealt with before.” He insisted, “I mean, obviously you have a President who at times is not dealing with reality.” Clearly annoyed, he wondered:
Can President Trump do this for another month, two months, three months? Can we all do this? Are we all going to be chasing down — maybe by tomorrow or Monday pull this [the claims about wiretapping] back or come up with explanation but we all know going to be another far-fetched claim, tall tale tweet that is going to be the news of the day or the news of the week. And my question is how long can this continue?
Perhaps Acosta is still smarting from when Spicer in January told him, “Report it straight up.” In February, Lemon cut off a Republican guest after he called CNN “fake news.”
A partial transcript is below:
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CNN Tonight
3/16/17
1:04DON LEMON: Before we go down this rabbit hole of people pretending the President said or intended something other than what he said. Let me be clear: the President put out false information, and over the last two weeks fewer and fewer people have been willing to defend him. For those remaining who are inclined to make excuses for the president or buy into his attempts at misdirection, let’s put his own words up on screen for everybody to see. You to see. President Trump first tweeted, “Terrible. Just found out that Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism.” McCarthyism refers to former Senator Joseph McCarthy who back in the 1950s accused people of subversion or treason, of being communists without any evidce, destroying countless lives. Mr. Trump then wrote, “Is it legal for a sitting president to be wiretapping a race for President prior to election? Turned down by court earlier, a new low.”
There he is, accusing the former president of a federal crime. Then he writes, “I bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to election.” A good lawyer implies that he has a legal case, proof, that he has some fact, some proof. The word fact implies that he has the goods to prove it, to back it up. Note, he also wrote “tapping my phones,” not surveilling my people. He wrote tapping my phones. Then he writes, “How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process? This is Nixon/Watergate, bad oor sick guy.” President Trump compares President Obama to a President who was impeached and driven in office in one of the biggest political scandals ever. And did it all with no proof and now has the gall to pretend with a straight face that he said something other than what he said. Maybe you still want to believe the President because this America and in America his office comes with a sacred trust. We respect the office and its holder but sometimes we have to ask do they respect that office? Do they respect us enough to give us the truth? Here’s Sean Spicer, the President's press secretary today.
[Long clip from Spicer press conference.]
LEMON: Did anyone see Billy Madison? The game show scene? 'Everyone in this room is dumber for having listened to that.' I hope that you're not dumber and I hope we're providing information. Just to be clear, no one mischaracterized what the Senate Intel said. Here’s a statement. “Based on the information available to us, we see no indication that the Trump Tower was subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government, either before or after election day 2016. Senator Richard Burr and Senator Mark Warner on March 16.” And by the way, I have to give a bit of a correction. Nixon was not impeached. He resigned before he was impeached. They were drawing up impeachment papers. I wrote that. That was my mistake, apologize for it. Can you do the same Mr. President for your mistake?
10:23
JIM ACOSTA: We're dealing with an administration unlike any we've ever dealt with before. I mean, obviously you have a President who, at times, is not dealing with reality. He is tweeting out things like former President Obama wiretapped him over at Trump Tower. This is on top of his false claim about being millions of people voting illegally in this country. That's on top of the claim that inaugural crowd size was larger than President Obama's. And we have this conversation it seems, Don, every other week. You know, we don’t do it every week but maybe it’s every other week. What is going on with President Trump? And the question I have, and it really goes to the heart of where we are as nation right now, can President Trump do this for another month, two months, three months? Can we all do this? Are we all going to be chasing down — maybe by tomorrow or Monday pull this [the claims about wiretapping] back or come up with explanation but we all know going to be another far-fetched claim, tall tale tweet that is going to be the news of the day or the news of the week. And my question is how long can this continue?
