Politics

CNN Commentators Clash Over Trump’s Phoenix Rally

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Nick Givas Media And Politics Reporter
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CNN Commentators Ana Navarro and Ben Ferguson went head to head over whether President Donald Trump’s comments at his Phoenix rally were inappropriate or just par for the course on “New Day” Thursday.

“When you’re talking to your base you’re going to have much more of a blunt conversation He doesn’t need a teleprompter then,” Ferguson said. “He’s going to be him. He’s going to be Donald Trump. If he’s going the next day and talking to a different group of people … I don’t think it’s fair to say that they’re not his words. He obviously goes over that. He goes over it with his speechwriter. Every president has someone that writes for them.”

Navarro hit back mocking Trump’s intellect and claimed he’s missing an opportunity to condemn hatred.

“None of us expect Donald Trump to be Albert Einstein. None of us expect him to be a tenured professor at Harvard. We know he doesn’t know policy,” Navarro said. “But this was a basic moral issue. This was about condemning white supremacy. This was about condemning hatred and racism. If you cannot have a consistent message on that, then you have a real problem.”

“It is the real Trump versus the scripted Trump. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Navarro added. Ferguson continued to defend Trump but said there are some issues you don’t get a second chance with.

“I think he’s trying to figure out exactly, sometimes you have to talk differently when you actually are the President of the United States. I think what he’s learned this week or over the last week and a half is you got to get certain issues right every time. You have to have a clear and concise message,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson maintained Trump should be able to have a conversation about violence on all sides without being considered a bad person.

“When we’re watching on TV, people that are literally being violent it is insane to imply the president shouldn’t be able to talk about this. People that are literally wearing a gas mask, throwing a canister of gas, throwing urine at police officers,” he said.

Navarro said the only time Trump is coherent is when he is speaking off a teleprompter and suggested that Chief of Staff John Kelly is “operating a shock collar” to keep him on message.

Even host Chris Cuomo admitted that it was Trump’s blunt message and honest takes when he was off the teleprompter that got him elected. But Cuomo took issue with Ferguson defending Trump and said it wasn’t about pleasing the base, but about condemning hatred and violence.

“When the blacks were fighting against the people with the fire hoses, were they morally equal? Were they morally equal? No is the answer! They were not morally equal. So when the white supremacist has a torch and I get up in the white supremacist’s face and we start going at it and there’s a fight are we morally equal? No!” Cuomo said.

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