CNN Anchor Asks ‘Is Trump Now The King Of Gaffes?’ After Rivals Attack Over String of Blunders
CNN anchor Erin Burnett asked “Is Trump now king of the gaffes?” as she teased a segment about former President Donald Trump’s rivals attacking him over recent blunders.
President Joe Biden’s campaign has been highlighting a raft of Trump gaffes recently — mixing up Biden and former President Barack Obama, misidentifying countries, not knowing what town he’s in or how many World Wars there have been, to name a few — and pushing for the media to cover them like they do concerns about Biden’s age.
But it was attacks from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) that prompted a segment on Trump’s miscues on Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s OutFront, which the anchor teased by asking if Trump is the new “king of the gaffes”:
BURNETT: Tonight, turning the tables on Trump. The Ron DeSantis campaign hammering Trump for a string of gaffes that he’s made on the campaign trail recently, launching what it’s called a Trump accident tracker, trying to get traction.
Today, the campaign mocking Trump’s teleprompter reading ability, calling his performance “sad,” to use a Trump word, and saying Trump is sounding a lot like Biden.
But put the politics aside because — the attacks from DeSantis come as Trump has been trying to make an issue out of Joe Biden’s age and fitness to office — for office relentlessly. Well, so, now, you got to look at his record, too.
Kristen Holmes is OutFront.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN HOLMES: It’s a new feature of Donald Trump’s stump speech.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: Where am I?
HOLMES: The former president delivering an exaggerated impersonating of Joe Biden, mocking the Democrats’ age and fitness for office.
TRUMP: He stands there, he doesn’t even know what the hell — he can’t — he can’t get off the stage. He can’t put two sentences together, and he’s in charge of nuclear warfare. Oh my!
HOLMES: But it’s Trump’s own verbal stumbles, such as predicting a future war that ended nearly 80 years ago —
TRUMP: We would be in World War II very quickly.
HOLMES: Claiming he defeated Barack Obama in an election.
TRUMP: We did it with Obama. We won an election that everyone said couldn’t be won.
HOLMES: And mistakenly referring to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as the leader of Turkey.
TRUMP: Viktor Orban. Did anyone ever heard of him? He’s probably one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. He’s the leader of — right? He’s the leader of Turkey.
But Viktor Orban, and he’s the head of Hungary, and he runs a tough —
HOLMES: That are giving his rivals, Democrats and Republicans alike, an opening to turn the tables.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And what Donald Trump does now, he is wedded to the teleprompter. He can’t get off that teleprompter. This is a different Donald Trump than 2015 and ’16, lost the zip on his fastball, has a sense of entitlement.
HOLMES: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis campaign also launched what it’s calling a Trump accident tracker, to highlight the former president’s verbal slips on the campaign trail.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, meanwhile, jabbed at the former president’s lack of moral clarity on foreign policy.
NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With all due respect, I don’t get confused.
HOLMES: President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is also seeking to draw attention to Trump’s missteps, clipping the moments and promoting them on social media.
TRUMP: A very big hello to a place where we’ve done very well, Sioux Falls. Thank you very much, Sioux Falls.
STATE SEN. BRAD ZAUN (R-IA): It’s Sioux City, not Sioux Falls.
TRUMP: Oh, it’s — oh is that right?
So Sioux City, let me ask you —
HOLMES: At 80, Biden is America’s oldest sitting president, and would be 86 at the end of a second term. Trump is about three and a half years younger than Biden.
TRUMP: It’s not too old. He’s incompetent.
HOLMES (on camera): And, Erin, despite this relatively small age gap between these two men, the way that voters view them is wide. In a recent NBC News poll, they found that 59 percent of voters and major concerns that Biden did not have the necessary physical or mental health that was needed to serve another presidential term. That compared to only 34 percent who felt that way about Trump — Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Kristen, thank you very much.
Watch above via CNN’s OutFront.
