CNN’s Jake Tapper brought the receipts after House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were crying about meanie Kamala Harris “normalizing violence” with her language about Trump. Tapper can get on my last nerve at times, but this was spot on.
On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) issued a joint statement weighing on Vice President Kamala Harris‘ characterization of former President Donald Trump as a “fascist.” CNN host Jake Tapper was having none of it on his Friday broadcast.
As the Hill reported, both Johnson and McConnell suggested that Harris calling her opponent a fascist could potentially invite more political violence ahead of the November election. The two Congressional Republican leaders said it’s important to not “allow this violence to be normalized,” referencing the July incident in which a would-be assassin barely missed Trump at a Pennsylvania rally and a September incident in which a man with a rifle was spotted at Trump’s Florida golf course.
“In the weeks since that second sobering reminder, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States has only fanned the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus,” Johnson and McConnell wrote “Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over.”
Tapper than proceeded to troll the Republican leaders with video of Trump calling Harris a fascist over and over again.
TAPPER: Okay, so the two Republican leaders expressing concern about Kamala Harris calling Donald Trump a fascist. Let’s show an example of Harris doing exactly what McConnell and Johnson are taking issue with.
TRUMP: She’s a Marxist, communist, fascist, socialist.
TAPPER: I’m sorry, control room, that was actually Donald Trump calling Kamala Harris a fascist in September. Control room, are you ready? Please run the clip of Kamala Harris calling Donald Trump a fascist, which offended the Republican leaders.
TRUMP: Somebody’s got to explain this one, this is a racial left, Marxist, communist fascist.
TAPPER: Okay, again, I’m sorry, that was Trump calling Harris a fascist, I apologize. Control room. Can we get it together? Johnson and McConnell are very upset that Kamala Harris called Donald Trump a fascist. Please roll the clip.
TRUMP: We have a fascist person running who’s incompetent and we have a president who’s not even around.
TAPPER: Guys, I’m trying to show the clip of Donald Trump being called a fascist. That’s what Speaker Johnson and Leader McConnell are really worried about. You keep running different clips of Trump calling her a fascist. Please, humor me.
Cut to Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly calling Trump a fascist and Tapper reading a quote from Mark Milley calling Trump a fascist, and then finally Harris agreeing with them.
TAPPER: Thank you. My control room going a little bit rogue there and making a point, perhaps. This is obviously what Mike Johnson and Mitch McConnell are worried about. Kamala Harris agreeing with the words of some of the people who have worked closely with Trump in the Oval Office and the situation room.
That’s that’s what they have an issue with, not Trump using these very same words.
It was nice to see them taken down a notch with some mockery. It doesn’t happen often enough.
