CNN guest complains that asking Republicans whether they will accept the results of the 2024 election is an “elitist question”
Former Trump Communications Director: “There is a segment of the population that hears those questions and then they, they feel like, well this whole thing is a setup”
Published
Citation From the June 13, 2024, edition of CNN's CNN This Morning
JEFF MASON (REUTERS): I just, it makes me think of that quote from Mike Johnson who says that of course President Trump will respect the outcome of the election. Well, that is objectively false. He can't say that, he doesn't know that. We saw how President Trump reacted to the results of the election in 2020. He has certainly not come out and said, I will respect whatever the outcome is in 2024. You can't as an individual, as a journalist, as a politician just accept that from the Speaker. You can't.
MIKE DUBKE (FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR): I really have a problem with this question being asked over and over and over again. Of basically --
KASIE HUNT (HOST): Why?
DUKBE: Every Republican -- Because it is a hypothetical. I mean, it --
KATE BEDINGFIELD (FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE COMMINICATIONS DIRECTOR): Mike--
DUBKE: No, no. No, no. We go back to 2020 and that is a, that is a different election. But in terms of this question being, being asked, I think it's a setup. Frankly, I'm just saying it's a setup. It seems --
HUNT: It wasn't a question before there was a violent rally at the Capitol to try to overturn the results of a free and fair election.
BEDINGFIELD: Correct. And Trump himself has subsequently said that he will not accept the results of the election. So I don't know how that's a hypothetical or a setup when that's a fundamentally dangerous thing to say.
DUBKE: For asking Donald Trump that question, fair. It's a fair question. For asking every Republican that comes, not every Republican, but a vast majority of Republicans that come on the air, not just this network, but other networks, and ask that question whether or not they should A, come up with a better answer, but secondly --
BEDINGFIELD: Yeah, the better answer is "yes."
DUKBE: I agree with you. But for the voters out there that are attracted to Donald Trump, they are attracted to the populist message that want to throw the bums out, that believe that there is corruption, that they are elitists, for all of that, from the media it sounds like just a, just an elitist question to politicians. I'm just calling that out. That's all I'm trying to say.
HUNT: Let me pull in something that we got from the Trump campaign yesterday, Elliot, because the fundraising email says "Haul out the guillotine."
ELLIOT WILLIAMS (CNN CONTRIBUTOR): Oh dear. I think the unfortunate thing about the guillotine reference is that given January 6 and gallows and nooses that were images there now --
HUNT: "Hang Mike Pence!" They were chanting "Hang Mike Pence!"
WILLIAMS: Again, even if we're going to quibble about the legitimacy, were they really chanting or was it sarcastic, it was literally gallows on January 6 and an image like that sticks in people's minds. Mike, to your point, this is Donald Trump's hold on the party. We were talking about this in the last segment before the break which is that, against rationality and political sound judgement, folks still seem to fall in line behind him.
BEDINGFIELD Yes. So when Republicans who are supporting him are interviewed about him, I don't understand how it's setup or an unfair question to say, do you support the fact that he has said he will not accept the results of the election?
DUBKE: No, no.
BEDINGFIELD: That is essential to Donald Trump's case here.
DUBKE: That question that is asked is, will you accept the results. I mean, I know we're quibbling over language here. We can obviously, we can move on. But this is a --
BEDINGFIELD: Can we?
DUBKE: I do. I do. Because I do think that at least part of what I'm trying to express here is that there is a segment of the population that hears those questions and then they, they feel like, well this whole thing is a setup to try to -- is a "gotcha" question. That's all I'm trying to say and there is a segment of the population that you've got to take into account when you're looking at this.