Watching the latest episode of CNN's Reliable Sources can seem like a never-ending, very repetitive nightmare, where host Brian Stelter is bringing on disgraced liar Dan Rather again for yet another exploration of how President Trump is mentally unstable, and how the press must get him removed from office like a nasty boil.
On Sunday, Rather lamented that he's "a little bit concerned with the press" under Trump, because it "still goes through these...contortions of quote, 'trying to be fair.'" This has not been a problem for Rather, who's been unfair for decades.
STELTER: Dan, you covered so many presidential elections. Obviously, this one is different. So, how do you want the press to approach it differently?
DAN RATHER: Well, first of all, I am a little bit concerned with the press -- and I do not exempt myself from this criticism -- still goes through these, too often, contortions of, quote, "trying to be fair." There is a line of fairness that we need to adhere to, but we have to report on what is, not what we hope would be the case.
And as members of the press, we have to just keep doing our job, which is keep telling people, keep reminding people through use of facts and quotes of how unusually unique this is to have, number one, a president who says in advance of the election that if it doesn't appear to go his way, he's going to try to tie it up in the courts and he will not commit to a peaceful transfer of power at the top, even if the indication is that he has lost.
And, number two, there's never been anything approaching this in the way of voter suppression by any president of the United States. And the president has to continue to frame things in that way.
Then he turned to Stelter's favorite perennial subject, Trump's supposed mental unfitness for high office:
RATHER: As to his mental condition, I know there is a theory, he is mentally unstable. I'm not qualified to say that. I will say this. That he is constantly engaging in anger, manic behavior, abusive behavior, mocking behavior, and so often indicating that he would score in the higher 90s in a dumb test.
So, you know, we have a combination of selfishness and stupidity operating out of the White House. People, I think, will see that eventually. Will they see it in time to avoid what is ahead for us?
Frequently, in the past, in what I will call normal times, Brian, that there's a fine line between a tragedy and farce. Unfortunately, that was a very long time ago. And the story of the Trump administration is both tragedy and farce.
It's rich for Dan Rather to describe someone else's career as "both tragedy and farce."
