Trump Fan Cringes at CNN Table When Accused of Caring More About Confederate Statues Than White House

Pro-Trump former GOP official Betsy McCaughey cringed when she and another CNN panelist were accused of caring more about Confederate statues being taken down than President Donald Trump’s ongoing White House demolition to erect a ballroom.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham recently pitched Trump on erecting a statue of Robert E. Lee in a “statuary garden” at the White House to troll the liberals who are upset over the demolition of the East Wing to make way for a massive ballroom.

Those themes came together again on Tuesday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, as anchor Abby Phillip and her panel of Bakari Sellers, Lydia Moynihan, Ana Kasparian, McCaughey, and Julia Ioffe discussed the ballroom:

MOYNIHAN: The outrage from the left, though, it feels extremely ironic that these are the same people celebrating statues being torn down of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and now there’s concern about erasing history, it kind of feels like the outrage is all over.

SELLERS: Well, I mean, let me just say that I wasn’t a big statue taker downer. That wasn’t my ministry. I wasn’t a big —

PHILLIP: Speaking for himself.

SELLERS: I wasn’t a big —

PHILLIP: I mean, here’s the thing about — here’s the thing about the ballroom and this —

SELLERS: The Robert E. Lee doesn’t belong —

PHILLIP: I wonder if there is any reasonable point to make that there should be somebody who has some context for history and for architecture that takes a look at a plan for a ballroom that is supposed to be bigger than the actual White House itself, and what that will do to the structure, to the landscape of the White House compounds?

(CROSSTALKS)

IOFFE: And that if Donald Trump wanted to give $100 million when Barack Obama was in office, great, but it’s not his. It belongs to all of us. And the fact that it was you unilaterally changed —

SELLERS: But also I think that — go ahead. I’m sorry.

IOFFE: The fact that it was unilaterally changed, the fact that it is done to one man’s taste, also, Betsy, like is there one thing Donald Trump has done that you don’t like?

MCCAUGHEY: I’ve made it clear there are many things certain.

IOFFE: Tell me one.

MCCAUGHEY: Support of a third term. And much more important than my view, the American people are never going to vote for a third term for any president.

KASPARIAN: I mean, it might not even be —

(CROSSTALK)

MOYNIHAN: We have a Supreme Court.

SELLERS: Barely.

(CROSSTALK)

KASPARIAN: Sure, sure. And I want to be fair to the Supreme Court because they have passed down some rulings that surprise me. They don’t necessarily go along with everything the Trump administration wants to do. So, I don’t want to discredit the Supreme Court. There have been times —

(CROSSTALK)

IOFFE: They do it themselves just fine.

(CROSSTALK)

KASPARIAN: They did — well, fair. But look, the point that I want to make is when it comes to the White House and when it — just consider how young our country is, right? And I’m going to take the White House out of it for a second and put it in the context of real estate in California. Whenever there’s like a historical house or something, I can’t stand the fact that oftentimes that house will get purchased by some wealthy family and then they tear it down. And the reason why that bothers me is because you want history to like

remain, right? You want some historical buildings to stay the way they are. And I have no problem with remodeling the White House or making improvements to the White House. But the reason why the Commission exists is so you can maintain the historical relevance and structural intent.

(CROSSTALK)

IOFFE: But I think, I think — what I think is incredible is that we would be, I think, two of our guests here would be much more upset if the White House tore down not the — not the East Wing but a statue of Robert E. Lee, right? Like you care about some history but not other history.

(CROSSTALK)

IOFFE: It just depends who — I think it just depends on who is tearing it down.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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