Stelter’s CNN Show: is it time for Trump to be urged to leave office, a “soft coup?”
Douglas Brinkley: Joint Chiefs need to “enter politics,” distance themselves from Trump
It was apocalypse now on Brian Stelter’s CNN show today. Under the guise of discussing how the media should be reporting the issue, the topic at hand was how and whether President Trump should be removed from office.
Historian Douglas Brinkley was the most partisan panelist, saying “we all know” that Trump is a narcissist, and that we’re dealing with what “having a sick man in the White House means.” Brinkley said that the five generals of the Joint Chiefs of Staff need to “enter politics” and distance themselves from Trump.
Bernstein asked: “is it time then for the president to be urged to leave office by those in his party and perhaps those same military leaders? Stelter called it “the biggest story in the world right now.
Stelter said that “some foreign correspondents, writing about the United States from other countries, would bring up the word “coup, a soft coup, with all this talk of military leaders.”
Alice Stewart, who previously worked on Ted Cruz’s campaign, said: “that has been discussed, And some people wonder what happened at Camp David over the last few days [where Trump met with top military and diplomatic leaders], and whether or not that was sort of an intervention.
Stewart earlier said that there have been “questions about the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, whether or not he should be removed for medical reasons.”
So take your pick: 25th Amendment or “soft coup”: the bottom line on CNN is that we are moving toward some kind of dramatic denouement of the Trump presidency.
Note: Bernstein says that the “primary function” of the media should be to cover the question of whether Trump should be removed from office. No doubt CNN and many other media outlets would be only too happy to oblige.
BRIAN STELTER: In discussions among friends and families, and debates on social media, people are questioning the president’s fitness. But these questions are happening in newsrooms and TV studios as well. Usually after the microphones are off, after the stories are filed, after the paper’s been put to bed, people’s concerns, and fears, and questions come out.
. . .
Is the President of the United States a racist? Is he suffering from some kind of illness? Is he fit for office? [long dramatic pause] And if he’s unfit, then what?
. . .
Is it time for objective journalists, and I don’t mean opinion folks, I mean down-the-middle journalists [like the ones at CNN?] to address these questions head on?
. . .
CARL BERNSTEIN: Republicans in Congress, the highest of intelligence officials, the highest of military officers in our country, leaders of the business community, all of whom have dealt with the White House, and many of them have dealt personally with Donald Trump, have come to believe that he is unfit for the presidency.
. . .
Republicans in Congress, they have been raising the very question of his stability and his mental fitness to be President of the United States . . . It is an important, crucial, dangerous story that reporters need to start making there business to do the reporting.
. . .
And in the last couple of weeks, it’s become a cascade, a torrent, a river of serious questions about whether the President of the United States is fit and stable enough to be president.
STELTER: Isn’t that the biggest story in the world right now?
ALICE STEWART: It is a legitimate story to cover; it is a legitimate question to be asked . . . There have been questions about the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, whether or not he should be removed for medical reasons.
. . .
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: Senator Corker is a real leader among Republicans, and it was very brave of him to step out, and really talk about the fact that we have an incompetent president, and what does that mean for our country?
. . .
On the medical front, we all know he is a neon billboard for overt narcissism, malignant self-love. We’ve all known that. Now we’re seeing, we’re getting the ramifications as a nation of what having a sick man in the White House means.
. . .
We’re at the state now where the five generals of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have to go out and enter politics and say we want nothing to do with what the president is saying. It is a crisis going on in the White House, and it’s about Donald Trump’s fitness for command.
. . .
BERNSTEIN: We need as journalists to make this our primary function right now in many regards in terms of covering this presidency.
. . .
BRINKLEY: For Donald Trump to be backing neo-Nazis, and to have Jim Acosta–it should be in the Bartlett’s Book of Quotations–“there are no fine Nazis.”
. . .
BERNSTEIN: One of these Republicans I talked to last week, who said, “the fundamental problem is we have a President of the United States who does not know right from wrong and who is not stable.
. . .
If we are dependent on the military leaders in this country, four or five of them, to protect us from the President of the United States, then that too is a story. And part of that story is, is it time then for the president to be urged to leave office by those in his party and perhaps those same military leaders?
STELTER: Some foreign correspondents, writing about the United States from other countries, would bring up the word “coup, soft coup!” with all this talk of military leaders intervening.
STEWART: Well that has been discussed, and some people wonder what happened at Camp David over the last few days and whether or not that was sort of an intervention?
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
The good news about being open, clearly knowing what side everyone is on…..
Cnn in speaking about the Free speech rallt calles it the so called free speech rally.
Cnn ,in reporting the Free Speech rally ,called it the So Called Free Speech Rally.
These peop!e are not even hiding it.
Trump needs to go out there and ask why Democrats and half the media are openly calling a terrorist organization Freedom Fighters and proceed to describe who Antifa is and Read right off their website explain to Americans and Ask the American public how they feel and demand they repudiate.
Didn’t we have a soft but brutal coup for the losers the last election
This is all bad faith back fill. These same idiots were calling from impeachment before Trump even took office. Their opinions on this are literally worthless.
BRIAN STELTER is a brainless fool who would be screaming if someone on FOX suggested a “soft coup” against Obama.
CNN should be declared a threat to the United States. They are not news outlet. They have attack and belittled the Trump administration from the very day he announced his run for president. I would throw CNN out of the White House. Make believe news organizations do not get White House press passes. I can not turn on CNN or MSNBC! Vile, sick, liars!
Hey CNN you stupid *ss holes. Trump is president for the next 4 years!
Maybe we can instigate a coup in the upper ranks of CNN? Do some high profile scalping.
One reason CNN foes this is because drama increases ratings. Higher ratings means more eyeballs for advertising dollars.
Shorter – ad agencies are complicit (knowingly or not) in tearing the country apart, for profit.
Is there an easy way to get contact information on the agencies who do the commercials for the likes of CNN and MSNBC? Not just the companies featured in the commercials.
I’d like to write to them, explain what exactly they are enabling, and ask them if it’s ethical to reward agitation-propaganda.
I also want to make it clear to them that if they continue to support this business model, they will share blame and responsibility for any ensuing violence. Which would make them a legitimate target for retaliation.
Remember how the media lied about Trayvon Martin and Eric Brown to such an extent that many believed they were attempting to torment race riots? Because bleeding skulls and burning cars was good for ratings?
Why is that allowed?
This lady is trying something legal against CNN… @joniturnerlaw on twitter. Maybe just showboating.
Although I’m sure the advertisers know precisely what CNN is up to I would like to write to them also. I’d like to tell them I’m done supporting anyone who advertises on their channel. The almighty dollar is the only thing that will help them understand that we consumers understand how detrimental CNN is. They can advertise on a nonpartisan channel. I’d love a list if anyone has one so I don’t have to watch to know.
Edit – does not foes, forment not torment. I hate this phone.
“CNN foes … .” An understandable Freudian slip.
CNN has done a lot of damage to the US over the years. People outside the country watch it and believe what they hear. But here at home more and more citizens are beginning to realize how crazy and destructive CNN is.
CNN is simply an arm of the democrat party – or vice versa.
They’re ‘normalizing’ a military coup against a duly elected president. Well, if that time comes, it might be appropriate to normalize summary executions of ‘normalizers’ of military coups against duly elected presidents.
saying “we all know” that Trump is a narcissist
Half a year they’ve been looking for something to hammer the President with, and that’s all they’ve got? Jeez, they’re not very good at this, are they?
But I have to admit, the Dems are just so adorable when they learn a new word and just can’t stop using it.
And how did they learn it? They heard it when they gave us one as President; Barry, the Narcissist-in-Chief. Now they’ve picked it up, and it’s their go-to accusation when they can’t think of anything real.
They pulled the same intellectual sleight-of-hand with Bush. Remember when the Dems became utterly fascinated by a strict requirement of ramrod-straight probity on the part of the President … after we had eight years of the pathological liar, Billy Jeff. Great, now they decide it’s important … So for eight years we were bombarded with imaginary stories on the theme “Bush lied!” about all matters great and small … but mostly small.
Of course the diagnosis of “narcissism”, even if correct, is inconsequential. It’s no crime. It’s not even necessarily an impediment to performance in office. When, as in Barry’s case, it meant the weird delusion that he was better at everything than the experts, it certainly was an impediment to performance, because it meant that he was the best he could get, even if he was none too good. But in less severe cases it’s hardly an issue.
Hilarious, considering they’ve been little barry’s diaper for the past 8 years. Barry never noticed his media diaper – he actually believes his own press. Talk about a narcissist.
Who the hell are these people to presume to know what’s best, or to speak for all, when they have repeatedly been wrong on so many of the biggest issues?
Never forget that these idiots supported the worst President ever, Tyrant Obama the Liar and the worst presidential candidate, Lying Crooked Hillary the Betrayer.
Where were these jerks for the past eight years when we had to put up with all kinds of crap from that narcissist and pos in the White House? Now they’re barely into the eighth month of Trump and they’ve done nothing but hold daily bitchfests while pushing the “Trump is crazy” meme at every opportunity.
What a bunch of pansies. Suck it up and try again next time, whiners. You don’t get a do over just because you put an inept, corrupt, lying candidate who possesses all the appeal and charisma of a well-ripened, overflowing honey bucket.
A question seems to me to be: Is a relentless campaign of innuendo, unsubstantiated accusations, out-and-out lies, an exaggeration or misrepresentation of actual mistakes, a lack of considerable support by the GOP, the fermenting of a climate of anger and distrust, the inciting and support of physical violence, and the who knows what collusion within the Federal bureaucracy going to be successful in the premature ending of a presidential term?
do they REALLY want a civil war?
because this is how you get a civil war, and they will NOT win.
Yes: they really want a civil war – until they start losing.
When they start losing, they’re going to suddenly cry and scream how civil war is wrong, hoping to lead the GOPe around by the nose again.
Nor survive.
There’s a certain entertainment in watching somebody suffering from delusional fantasy on CNN.
Anyway, he expects generals who mostly achieved their positions during the last eight years of Obama to somehow be glowing bastions of honesty and honor, a characteristic they should exhibit by instituting a coup against their commander in chief. Right. Any general with such an idea needs to be in command of the First Unicorn Cavalry Brigade. (The Fighting Eleventy-First. “We Horn In On The Enemy.”)
“Anyway, he expects generals who mostly achieved their positions during the last eight years of Obama to somehow be glowing bastions of honesty and honor”
I see it as the opposite. They see those generals as having no honor, just like themselves, that’s why they would follow CNN’s marching orders.
Outrageous.
There are plenty of O-5’s ready to move up the food chain.
Apparently the generals were meeting with Trump to discuss actual adult, real-world business, namely the proper approach to take with troops in Afghanistan. But apparently the lives of American servicemen matter a lot less than reporters’ feelings.
Brian Stelter should change his name to “Wormtongue”.
The Missing Link (aka Brian Stelter) can only succeed in a world of stacked panels (three liberals and a RINO) and stooge guests, like Carl Bernstein, who totally afree with him. A knowledgeable consdervative, like Tucker Carlson, would tear him apart.
Attempts at soft coups need HARD pushbacks.
I think they are coup coup.
Beaucoup coup coup?
I despise Trump, but CNN is calling for the the military (i.e., Chiefs of Staff) to commit an act of treasonous insubordination by intervening in politics to abet the overthrow of its duly elected civilian Commander in Chief. Giving this action on CNN’s part as his only reason, Trump should now quit fooling around with his Twitter’d tantrums, and ban CNN from the White House for the duration of his term(s). We’ll see whether CNN and the rest of the Left have the gall to file a lawsuit demanding the right to advocate for greater military involvement in domestic politics.
if any media did this before Nixon it would bring a Treason investigation.. with charges.. #1A Does Not Protect overthrow of Federal, nor incite to violence..
Wrong. The first amendment absolutely protects advocacy of all kinds, including of overthrowing the government. Incitement to commit a crime is not protected, but nothing they said came even close to that. Now if the joint chiefs were foolish enough to follow this advice, Trump would have no choice but to cashier them all for insubordination.
What reality do these clowns live in?
These poltroons do not understand our republic and how it functions and they have not even a vague concept of our military and how IT works! There have been some marvelous works of fiction depicting a military coup in this country but they are just that … fiction! The first thing a military member does is swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America; obeying the orders of the President and appointed officers comes after that primary duty.
Do these sad, morally bankrupt fools really believe someone who voluntarily took that oath, knowing full well what it means, is going to stage a coup? Really?
Sad.
If they believe Obama has successfully reshaped the officer corps into leftist toadies then yes, they would really believe that.
Generals are not stupid people and must realize the odds of their coup being successful and them surviving are very, very small. Obama didn’t do much for black people, but he sold the hell out of black rifles or Rifles Of Color as they like to be called.
Does anyone with a brain watch of listen to Stelter? He’s a poo flinging monkey with delusions of grandeur.
I thought CNN had fallen about as far from actual journalism as it could get. Now it’s just a matter of just how damn low will they go.
“The eclipse is racist,” so says left-wing Brooklyn Law professor, Alice Ristroph.* Naturally, liberals are outraged.
Alice Ristroph, railed against the racist sun for spreading across states were hardly any black people live.
* Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/american-totality-eclipse-race/537318/#article-comments
That damned sun privilege is so wrong. We need more affirmative action moon hours. Mooooon river……