Since the announcement of Sen. John McCain’s death, the media has seized the opportunity to bash President Trump for his constant quarreling with the late senator, even though that same media bashed McCain with the same fervor just one decade ago. Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum appeared on CNN with Chris Cuomo to tell the media to knock off the cheap theatrics.
“I just don’t think it does anything to the memory of John McCain to use him as a cudgel to beat up the president,” Santorum told Cuomo. “The media seems to have this fascination to try to use the death of John McCain to further belittle and beat up Donald Trump.”
Cuomo shot back, saying, “You think we need to do that to find reasons to criticize the president? This is a moment that matters.”
Bakari Sellers then accused the GOP of becoming a party of “cowardice” under President Trump, with members trying to “contort themselves into pretzels” as they defend Trump’s behavior.
“The fact is, you have John McCain who is a war hero. Even my Democrats, even the people on the left who want to chastise him for whatever his policy may have been, we’re saying that now is not the time,” he said. “You have a president this week who did not stand up and show the best of what we can be, and that’s a problem. John McCain deserves all the glory today.”
Sellers added: “You don’t have to kowtow like Rick’s doing right now on TV and make excuses for a president who does not deserve excuses.”
With that, Santorum referenced Cuomo’s brother, Andrew, castigating America as being “never that great” in a speech last Wednesday. It was then that the panel erupted into a schoolyard slap-fest.
“You’re so petty,” Sellers said, shaking his head.
Cuomo interjected: “Come on, don’t play cheap. You talk about my brother … you can’t do better than that? I’ll give you a hundred things about my brother that are true that are much worse than that.”