CNN’s Chris Cuomo Lacerates Trump for His Enthusiastic Death Penalty Support: ‘He Loves That Authoritarian Muscle’

CNN’s Chris Cuomo issued a stinging, personal attack on the president for his “love of the death penalty,” tying it to a broader pattern of Donald Trump advocating for a certain kind of aggressive, state-sponsored violence by law enforcement and the military: “Boy, he sure loves his authoritarian muscle.”

In his Friday night “Closing Argument” segment, Cuomo pivoted from the false claims and political insults Trump let loose in a press conference on the coronavirus response to other examples of the toxic divisiveness fomented by the president.

“He has a penchant for playing on problems to advantage,” Cuomo argued. “He seems to want to remind us of prejudices and animus. He seems to want you angry. And he just gave you a really ugly example that is anathema to American greatness. You may have heard a man is killed because of a policy in this country that exists in few other civilized countries, the death penalty.”

Cuomo then discussed the case of Nathaniel Woods, who was convicted in 2005 and put on death row for the killing of three police officers, even though another man has confessed to pulling the trigger and said Woods ran away during the crime. Despite that confession, Alabama executed Woods on Thursday night after numerous appeals.

“Now the president announced he and his [Attorney General] want to do it more. Why? I argue for all the wrong reasons, once again,” Cuomo said, referring to the Trump administration’s decision to end the 2003 ban on federal capital punishment. “President Trump and his [Attorney General] want to do more after nearly a two decade hiatus. That’s the key. Why has it been on hiatus? Support has been in the mid-50s for three years. Hasn’t been that low since 1971. Why? Lots of reasons. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t deter. We’ve evolved or I thought so. And also, we’re uncomfortable with the message that killing can be okay. You need proof, look at the company that we keep. Look at the chart right now on your screen. In 2018, the United States had the seventh most executions in the world. Behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia. Vietnam and Egypt. Is that the company you want to keep?”

Mentioning a recent House bill introduced by Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to ban federal executions, Cuomo noted how the president has summarily rejected that argument.

“Why are we doing this?” Cuomo asked of Trump’s decision to revive federal executions. “It rarely satisfies victims’ families. Go out and check, I’ve interviewed many. Do you really want a social instruction in brutality? That this is us at our best? Trump does. He loves all of it.” Cuomo then played a 2018 clip where Trump touted “toughness” and China’s willingness to use executions on drug-related criminals. And just last month, Trump again praised China, which secretly executes untold numbers of people each year, for using the death penalty to dealing with the “drug problem.”

“You want to kill drug addicts? Seriously?! And they applaud,”  Cuomo said of Trump and his enthusiastic rallygoers. “Boy, he loves that authoritarian muscle: ‘Might makes right. Killing in the name of justice.’ I thought only God decides who lives and dies? Isn’t that the pro-life argument? Eye for an eye now? Old testament justice? Certainly wasn’t Jesus’ message. What about loving mercy?”

“This is no what America represents around the world. It’s what Trump represents. What he’s always been about,” Cuomo said before bringing up the infamous 1989 New York Times ad where Trump essentially advocated for executing the so-called “Central Park Five” before they had even been tried or convicted — all of whom were eventually exonerated. “It shows the thinking behind Trump’s love of the death penalty, situation raises a question that shadows our politics and current state of affairs. What are you about? Are you about fairness under the law? Are you about being better than what you oppose?”

Watch the video above, via CNN.