CNN’s John Berman Ridicules Trump Refusal to Explicitly Denounce White Supremacy Like ‘The Fonz’ Can’t Say ‘I’m Sorry’
CNN anchors John Berman and Alisyn Camerota savaged President Donald Trump over his now-second failure to explicitly denounce white supremacy when pressed to do so, with Berman comparing it to “The Fonz” being unable to form the words “I’m sorry.”
Trump’s attempted clean-up of his debate remarks telling the extremist Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” was a frequent topic of discussion on Friday morning’s New Day, with Camerota and Berman taking turns slamming Trump for his stilted comments at a Wednesday gaggle.
Berman kicked the show off by introducing the clip, which featured Trump attempting at length to change the subject as reporters repeatedly refocused him on explicitly denouncing white supremacists (transcript via The White House):
Q So, Mr. President, did you misspeak when you said “stand by”? That’s my — my first question. When you said —
THE PRESIDENT: Just “stand by.” Look, law enforcement will do their work. They’re going to stand down. They have to stand down. Everybody — they have to stand — whatever group you’re talking about, let law enforcement do the work.
Now, Antifa is a real problem, because the problem is on the left and Biden refuses to talk about it. He refuses to issue the words “law and order.” And you saw that last night when he choked up. He can’t say the words because he’ll lose the rest of the left. So he’s got to condemn Antifa. Antifa is a very bad group.
Q So, Mr. President, let me follow up: White supremacists, they clearly love you and support you. Do you welcome that?
THE PRESIDENT: I want law and order to be a very important part — it’s a very important part of my campaign. And when I say that, what I’m talking about is law enforcement has to — the police have to take care. And they should stop defunding the police like they’ve done in New York —
Q But I’m talking about white supremacists, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: — like they’ve done in New York. I just told you.
Q But do you denounce them? Do you denounce white supr- —
THE PRESIDENT: I’ve always denounced any form —
Q Of white supremacy?
THE PRESIDENT: Any form — any form of any of that, you have to denounce.
Berman then observed “‘Any form of any of that.’ Not ‘I condemn white supremacy. It’s like the Fonz in Happy Days, he couldn’t say ‘I’m sorry,’ he’d say ‘I’m s-s-s-…’ President Trump couldn’t even get to the ‘w’ in white supremacy. That’s what that sounds like.”
Berman was referring to a running gag from the 50s-set sitcom in which the character of Arthur Fonzarelli — portrayed by Henry Winkler and alternately referred to as “Fonzie” or “The Fonz” — physically could not form certain words, usually ones that indicated culpability or vulnerability on his own part.
Commentator Errol Lewis added that Trump is “sending a clear signal to violent extremists, militia-type organizations, which are publicly rejoicing, that clearly get the message. He’s letting them know that he’s not going to step away from them. That he does want them, in fact, to go out and help disrupt the elections.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
