Hours after a CNN contributor said that he also would have retweeted the series of anti-Muslim videos circulated by a far-right British extremist that President Donald Trump retweeted on November 29, Dana Bash -- the network’s chief political correspondent -- called out the people who supported what Trump did as being “racists, and fascists, and bigots.”
During the 9 a.m. hour of CNN Newsroom with John Berman and Poppy Harlow, CNN contributor Ben Ferguson said that if he had seen the videos first, “I would have probably tweeted that out and said to myself, ‘This is something the world needs to see.’” From the November 29 edition of CNN Newsroom with John Berman and Poppy Harlow:
BEN FERGUSON: A lot of people don’t like to see the truth of what is happening with many extremists in the Muslim community. And I think the thing about these videos is -- I look at it from this perspective: Are you offended by the person who originally tweeted them out or are you offended by the video? And, I think the president -- if I would have seen these videos, and I would have seen it on my feed, and I would have watched them, I would have probably tweeted that out and said to myself, “This is something the world needs to see.”
Hours later on Inside Politics, chief political correspondent Dana Bash said that it is “hard to swallow” that “the only people who are supporting what the president did are racists, and fascists, and bigots.”
JOHN KING (HOST): It makes you really proud as an American, right, when David Duke is praising your president as a truth teller? I’m not even going to read it, but there it is. And that’s what’s happening. The British prime minister says he’s wrong. Just about every anti-discrimination, civil rights group in the United States has issued a statement saying, “Dear god, Mr. President. Get a grip.” And David Duke says, “Great.”
DANA BASH: The only people who are supporting what the president did are racists, and fascists, and bigots. And that is so hard to swallow.