Leftist CNN commentator John Harwood and a panel of other left-wing commentators at CNN unloaded on President Donald Trump late this week after he gave his post-impeachment acquittal speech in the White House.
“Look, this was a very disturbing tableau for the country,” Harwood said. “It was dark because he’s made clear that his mind is dark. This is someone who is in deep psychological distress right now, self-pitying, insecure, angry.”
Harwood later continued by mocking the president, “He doesn’t recognize abstract concepts like right and wrong, like morality or immorality, like true or false.”
Leftist Axios reporter Alexi McCammond claimed that Trump was trying to play on “the inherent tribalism that I think a lot of people feel since President Trump was elected.”
WATCH:
BRIANNA KEILAR: To hear Mitt Romney explain, it really comes from a genuine place of conviction where he searched his searched his soul, he said essentially that he was looking for a reason to convict. But he couldn’t and that was because he had really an oath to God that he couldn’t move past that without feeling like he was breaking that to acquit the President. I was struck by just what a dark place this was in this speech. Other speeches in history strike a somber tone, strike a conciliatory tone, strike a forward looking tone. This was so dark, Nia.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Yeah, and surprising. I mean, not surprising that the President can be vindictive, can be petty, can be, you know, frame himself as the victim and want to air grievances all the time, but it felt like this was a real moment, right, where he could have some focus on a forward-looking message for the country, borrow from some of the themes in the hope from the State of the Union, Republicans certainly received that very well, but here he was talking about Bill Clinton, talking — or Hillary Clinton, talking about the FBI agents, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. So it was very, very bizarre, in some ways a missed opportunity. Look, he spent a lot of time yesterday having to look at Mitt Romney on screen all day and give that very passionate address where he talked about his faith and really, in some ways, dismantled the Republicans arguments against impeachment and removing the President from office. So here this was just a long and rambling speech. You know, I was watching it and this was sort of like a session with your therapist, right, where you’re sitting on the couch and you’re kinda talking about the internal emotions that you’re having cause that’s what it sounded like and listen, he’s not going to get over the Mitt Romney thing. That was very deep-wounding to him. He very much prize — prizes the fact that he’s been able to keep Republicans together, and the fact that Mitt Romney has strayed away from the Republican pack in aligning, you know, not aligning himself with the President. I think this is not something he’s going to forgive.
KEILAR: I might argue it’s more a dear diary or certainly you’re not getting your money’s worth because a therapist might interject in the middle of that and this was more of like a — this was more just a monologue. John Harwood, you cover him day in and day out. What struck you?
JOHN HARWOOD: Look, this was a very disturbing tableau for the country. It was dark because he’s made clear that his mind is dark. This is someone who is in deep psychological distress right now, self-pitying, insecure, angry. He almost said plaintively at the end when he was reading a text from Strzok to Page, where he said I’m a good — I’m not a bad person. He was sort of imploring people to accept that view of him. When Kaitlan and Alexi said, he thinks I did nothing wrong, that sentence stops with the word “I” because, with Donald Trump, if he did it, it’s not wrong. He doesn’t recognize abstract concepts like right and wrong, like morality or immorality, like true or false. He recognizes what is good for him in the moment and what has happened, what Mitt Romney has done by casting that vote, what Nancy — Pelosi has done has felt very, very unpleasant to him. He said impeachment is a very ugly. By going after Romney, the other part of it that I think is striking is that the entire Republican Party reduced to sitting applauding this rambling, disordered set of remarks, and one of the reasons why it is an uncomfortable moment for them is that Mitt Romney, when he gave that speech, said, I’ve looked at the facts. I’ve come to the conclusion and I can’t avoid this. He stripped naked the rationalizations that they have used for their votes. Remember they started off saying, look, the whistleblower broke. They started out saying, well, it would be terrible if there was a quid pro quo, but there’s no evidence of a quick. Now, when we got to the end of the process, Ted Cruz told the White House lawyers well, we all know it’s a quid pro quo and what they’re saying is, yes, it was a quid pro quo. They approved that case but it’s not that big a deal. They were starting from the end point of — of protecting this President and Romney has shown that the — the calculations behind that are pretty hollow.
GLORIA BORGER: He is the victim here.
KEILAR: Yeah.
BORGER: There — this is how he sees himself. He is the victim in all of this. He has done nothing wrong, and as you point out, John, lots of Republicans are now saying, well, the call was inappropriate — he thinks — but not impeachable. He said there is nothing wrong with it, he is the good guy, they are the bad guy, and this is the way this campaign is going to be run. Make no mistake about it. No matter who his opponent is, the world will be divided into good and evil and most of the country, I don’t think, is in the good and evil thing. I think the country looks at politicians and says, well, there are some good things he says, there are some bad things she says. I don’t — you know —
[CROSSTALK]
HARWOOD: Most of the country is against it.
BORGER: That’s right. That’s right. But people don’t see people as black and white.
ALEXI MCCAMMOND: And he’s playing on the inherent tribalism that I think a lot of people feel since President Trump was elected and clearly that a lot of people were feeling —
BORGER: Absolutely
MCCAMMOND: — bubble up, you know, when Obama was President.