CNN’s John Berman Goes Off on Trump Over ‘Stunning’ Rant About John Lewis: ‘What an Incredible Baby!’
CNN anchor John Berman lit into President Donald Trump over his Axios interview, particularly the portion in which Trump dismisses the legacy of civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis because Lewis “didn’t come to my inauguration.”
On Tuesday morning’s edition of New Day, Berman discussed the interview with co-anchor Alisyn Camerota and CNN political analyst David Chalian, and began by positing the Axios interview as a reason to question Trump’s faculties.
“People need to watch this. They need to watch the whole thing because of the way the president answers questions,” Berman said. “It’s not just the answers he gives, it’s the way he goes about it and the convoluted and sometimes disjointed disoriented way.”
He then played a portion of the interview in which Trump is asked about the legacy of the late Georgia congressman, and expresses grievance that Lewis boycotted his inauguration:
SWAN: How do you think history will remember John Lewis?
TRUMP: I don’t know. I really don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration. He chose— I never met John Lewis, actually, I don’t believe.
SWAN: Do you find John Lewis impressive?
TRUMP: I can’t say one way or the other — I find a lot of people impressive. I find many people not impressive, but, no, he didn’t come to my inauguration. He didn’t come to my State of the Union speeches, and that’s okay. That’s his right. And, again, nobody has done more for Black Americans than I have. He should’ve come. I think he made a big mistake. I think he should’ve come.
SWAN: But taking your relationship with him out of it, do you find his story impressive — what he’s done for this country?
TRUMP: He was a person that devoted a lot of energy and a lot of heart to civil rights. But there were many others, also.
Chalian called the response “shameful,” but added “it is also classic Donald Trump.”
“It’s a level of narcissism, I mean it’s just all about him,” Chalian said, and went on to add that “it is just astounding still to watch, as much as we understand that Donald Trump is all about Donald Trump, that very moment as he’s laying in the state up in the capital, to make it all about him and he didn’t come to my inauguration, it is exactly what we know Donald Trump to be.”
Camerota agreed, but added “it’s also just the politics of retribution, which we see all the time. I’m not going to go there, he didn’t come to my inauguration.”
Chalian pointed out that even “sitting in the blue room of the White House, this is the president of the United States of America, and it is just personal grievance, it’s not about the country at all.”
“What a baby. I have to say, what a baby. What an incredible baby,” Berman said. “And it’s not just narcissism, it’s petulance. The way he kept on saying ‘Oh, you know, he didn’t come to my inauguration,’ and then to have the gall to say ‘I have done more for Black Americans than anybody else.'”
“You know who has done more for Black Americans than Donald Trump?” Berman asked. “John Lewis.”
Berman then added that “It was really stunning,” and theorized that “It’s also possible the president doesn’t know what John Lewis did, because I didn’t see any connection there in the president’s brain about the history there.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
