CNN’s Brianna Keilar Delivers Epitaph on the Trump Years: Took Office Saying He’d Stop ‘American Carnage,’ But Left Behind a ‘War Zone’

With the Trump presidency coming to a close on Wednesday, CNN’s Brianna Keilar reflected on the past four years in the wake of the recent violent rioting at the Capitol.

“The Trump presidency will likely be defined by its assault on truth, its damage to democracy and its denial to science that experts say would have saved American lives from coronavirus,” Keilar said.

Some of the “how it started/how it’s going” contrasts Keilar invoked included the president hosting prominent CEOs at the White House and now speaking with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, him nominating Supreme Court justices that ultimately did not give his baseless election claims the time of day, and his fraught relationships with people he nominated and later ended up trashing.

Keilar also contrasted the “extreme vetting” Trump talked about with respect to the travel ban with the vetting reportedly going on right now for officials providing security for Joe Biden’s inauguration.

She even went back to the infamous moment where Sean Spicer, one day after Trump’s inauguration, tried to declare the president had the largest inauguration crowd size. “Period.”

And while Keilar noted that, because of the pandemic Biden’s inauguration will be smaller by necessity anyway, she said the crowd “that is going to define Trump’s legacy” will be the rioters at the Capitol.

She recalled “countless lies” from the Trump administration and said “the credibility of every Trump spokesperson is in tatters.”

Finally Keilar went back to Trump’s talk of “American Carnage” at his inaugural speech four years ago this week.

“The real American carnage was only beginning. From Charlottesville to the White House and now to the capitol,” she said. “A rampage incited by the president and organized by his supporters, costing several of their lives and the lives of at least one police officer. And even after all of that, the president wanted a farewell spectacle with all the fanfare of a military sendoff. He seemed unaware that he was already getting one in this city, now guarded by a larger military presence than the U.S. has in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria combined. Where the president will make his departure, skipping town on Wednesday without attending Joe Biden’s inauguration, and exiting his presidency through a war zone of his own creation.”

You can watch above, via CNN.