‘Bulls**t outrage’: Anger mounts over CNN guests’ mockery of ‘dumb’ Trump supporters but panelist laps it up, promotes book
Reactions to CNN panelist Rick Wilson’s mockery of Trump voters are boiling over with the US president himself slamming the segment, and the guest using the attention to promote his book.
The short video aired by the news network on Saturday may well be the most cringeworthy of the 2020 election cycle, but don’t hold your breath for apologies.
The arrogance, the dismissiveness, the smug cackling, the accents.If Donald Trump wins re-election this year, I’ll remember this brief CNN segment late one Saturday night in January as the perfect encapsulation for why it happened. pic.twitter.com/8kQ6zN9AZV
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) January 28, 2020
“Donald Trump’s the smart one, any y’all elitists are dumb!” said former Republican strategist Rick Wilson in a heavy southern accent, as CNN host Don Lemon and the other guest, New York Times columnist Wajahat Ali, burst into laughter.
“You elitists with your geography and your maps and your spelling!” said Ali joining in on the mockery.
“Your math and your reading!” Wilson responded. “All those lines on the map!”
The exchange came as the panel discussed the spat over Ukraine between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly. They argued over whether the majority of Americans cared about it, with Pompeo allegedly asking Kelly to show him Ukraine on the map. Wilson’s comedy routine started with a suggestion that President Trump himself would not be up to the geography task and neither would his base, or the “credulous boomer rube demo that backs Donald Trump,” as he put it.
Former CNN digital producer Steve Krakauer highlighted the segment on Twitter, saying if Trump wins re-election it would be “the perfect encapsulation for why it happened.”
The US president himself responded to the clip in typical fashion on Twitter, calling Lemon “the dumbest man on television (with terrible ratings)”.
Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television (with terrible ratings!). https://t.co/iQXCc7lvCt
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2020
Trump campaign director Brad Parscale shared the video with a comment: “Deplorables. This Deplorable is ready,” a reference to the insulting name given to Trump supporters by his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton.
While Trump supporters cry foul and say the panel has finally made it clear what “the Left” thinks about half of the country, Wilson, the initiator of the exchange, has doubled down over his behavior.
“The best part is how they’re repeating the now-classic #UCrane bit and amplifying a line that clearly made @realDonaldTrump furious,” he tweeted.
The most beautiful part of this entirely contrived phony bullshit outrage about that segment isn’t that I insulted the Maga demo.The best part is how they’re repeating the now-classic #UCrane bit and amplifying a line that clearly made @realDonaldTrump furious. pic.twitter.com/rNr1skjYZ1
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 28, 2020
Wilson also seized the opportunity given by a surge of public attention to advertise his recently published book, the Trump-bashing ‘Running Against the Devil.’
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
