On “The Ben Shapiro Show” Tuesday, Shapiro discussed the recent media firestorm over President Trump unloading on Rep. Elijah Cummings’ “rat and rodent infested” Baltimore and the double standard applied to Democrats, particularly Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), when they offer the same criticism. Video and partial transcript below:
So instead of actually tackling what Trump is saying about Baltimore, or explaining that President Trump doesn’t have any solutions for Baltimore, he’s just mouthing off, which is actually what happened there. Or that The Squad are too radical, which Nancy Pelosi was trying to say two weeks ago. Instead, the media have decided to rally around the Trump is a racist narrative because they’re really familiar with it. It’s like an old standby. There are certain quarterbacks you know they’re going to call a run on a particular play because they’re uncomfortable with the throw. Well that is the Democrats at this point and that is the media. They’re uncomfortable with throwing the ball down the field, you know, risking it all on policy or on a rational conversation. Instead, they’re just going to go with the run, which may give them a couple of yards and a pile of dust. And the run is racism.
So, CNN’s Don Lemon yesterday talked to a black pastor who met with President Trump. Trump met with a bunch of pastors from the inner city, and Don Lemon said to this black pastor, Is it “godly” how Trump attacks people of color? I definitely recall Don Lemon asking Barack Obama whether it was godly for the Reverend Al Sharpton to be visiting the White House, after inciting a couple of riots, allegedly. Here is Don Lemon doing this routine:
Don Lemon: You know, I know it’s hard for you. You think it’s hard to believe that Trump is racist, but he has repeatedly used racially charged language. He consistently attacks black and brown elected leaders.
Rev. Bill Owens: He does not just attack black people, he attacks anybody, and you know it.
LEMON: As a man of faith, as a Christian, you’re saying he attacks anyone. It sounds like you’re condoning attacks. Is that Christian leader or godly?
OWENS: I’m just stating a statement of fact. I’m not condoning anything I’m stating a statement of fact. President Trump does not pick the people he attacks because of color. He attacks anybody he feels needed.
And this is 100 percent true. But I love Don Lemon now doing this religious routine. Well you know, you know, isn’t it godly when he attacks people. I don’t know, was it godly when Barack Obama decided that he was going to slander the officers of Cambridge Massachusetts? Was it godly when he welcomed Al Sharpton back into the good graces of American society, after Al Sharpton had helped set off racial conflagrations on repeated occasions?
Don’t worry guys, the media isn’t biased.
You want to know how the media is biased? CNN had a panel yesterday talking about Baltimore. And someone pointed out, hey, didn’t Bernie like rip Baltimore in 2015 and talked about how [it] was a third world country? And everyone agrees that’s totally different because that was Bernie man. And Bernie is just a good guy. But Trump’s a bad guy. When Trump rips Baltimore [it’s] totally different.
CNN Panelists: Jan, let me let me show you this tweet from President Trump. It says, “Crazy Bernie Sanders recently equated the city of Baltimore to a third world country. Based on that statement, I assume that Bernie must now be labeled a racist, just as a Republican would use that term and standard.” But there is a difference.
Another CNN Panelist: Of course, and look I think everybody should be focused on helping people in the inner city of Baltimore get the help they need. People would like more jobs; they’d like health care. They’d like all sorts of benefits that the government could certainly support. But there is a commonality and a pattern with President Trump here, and I think that’s important context.
Oh, you see there’s a difference. Now we’re not going to explain the difference. We’re just going to say that there is a difference, and then everybody sort of just accepts it as rote. And there is a difference that when Trump says that Baltimore is a bad place and when Bernie Sanders says that Baltimore is a bad place, totally totally different. I mean two totally different things. And this is all of course pushing a particular narrative. Trevor Noah, who, again, is in this run-and-gun battle for unfunniest person in America. Occasionally he’s funny, so he is still running well behind Samantha Bee, who I think has this runaway. I mean she’s like the Secretary of Unfunniness on Late-Night TV. But Trevor Noah says you don’t have to be a genius to know what Trump means when he talks about Baltimore. Really, spell it out for me Trevor.
NOAH: This language is part of a pattern right. President Trump always uses the word infestation when talking about people of color, almost always uses it. He said illegal immigrants are infesting America, said Congressman John Lewis, (D-GA) his Atlanta district is crime infested, and that the squad must go back to their crime infested countries. Like you don’t need to be a genius to see what Trump is implying because he’s not a subtle person.
Here’s the thing, as I said yesterday, he called New Hampshire drug-infested. New Hampshire is whiter than any blank piece of paper you can find. 1.1% of the population of New Hampshire is black. So he said it was drug-infested, was he talking about black people, what did that mean? All of this is meant to drive the narrative, and the narrative is that black people are under threat. Democrats want to portray that narrative despite the fact that we have record black unemployment. Despite the fact that blacks in the last several election cycles have outpaced that percentage of the population, in terms of the voting population. What they want is for black people to feel under threat, so black people turn out and vote against President Trump, duplicating the Obama 2012 coalition, rather than their turnout in 2008 alone.