CNN’s John Berman Mocks Ted Cruz’s Own Incendiary Rhetoric after Texas Senator Calls Out Maxine Waters for Same
Today is LITERALLY a new day for CNN’s New Day, as the morning show has re-launched with a new co-anchor (Brianna Keillar replacing Alisyn Camerota), a bright new graphics package, and something new from co-anchor John Berman: a three-minute essay that sounded suspiciously like an opinion piece.
Berman has in the past often opened shows with bite-sized bits of snark on the political news of the day, but they seemed more like an amuse-bouche designed to whet the appetite of the New Day viewer. This was a solid essay that took apart the seeming hypocrisy of Senator Ted Cruz’s shifting positions on inciteful political rhetoric as it relates to Rep. Maxine Waters and past comments from pro-Trump officials that led to the January 6th insurrection.
Rep. Waters has been a perfect bogeyman for many on the right for what some have seen as aggressive rhetoric. She traveled to Minneapolis this weekend as the Derek Chauvin trial is wrapping and repeated her encouragement of protestors to continue to be heard and to get into people’s faces. “We’ve got to stay active, get more active, more confrontational, make sure that they know we mean business,” Waters said publicly.
Senator Cruz is one such critic as he tweeted the following condemnation of Rep. Waters:
Berman read the tweet for his viewers and followed by airing a number of what can fairly be called incendiary clips of Republicans and Trump officials saying pretty inflammatory rhetoric in advance of the siege on the Capitol building on January 6th. New Day viewes saw a quick montage that culminated in Rudy Giuliani threatening “trial by combat” just an hour before Trump supporters took over the Capitol.
But it was the clip of Cruz rallying political supporters of Republican Senate candidates in Georgia in which he compared the rally-goers to the “patriots gathered at Bunker Hill and Valley Forge. “Just like the patriots who forged this nation, the men and women gathered here and across the state of Georgia are fighting for the United States of America because we defend our constitution as we defend our freedom, and we will not go quietly into the night.”
Using a pot meet kettle metaphor throughout, Berman surgically revealed what are clearly Cruz’s inconsistent standards on what he deems to be inflammatory rhetoric.
“Maxine Waters has said incendiary things in the past and this is a week when the nation is very much on edge,” Berman allowed before concluding. “But Ted Cruz needs to look in the mirror, which can be tough, especially for him because you know what they say: when the going gets tough, the pot goes to Cancun.”
Watch above via CNN.
