CNN Panel Calls BS on Trump Claim He Respects the Obamas: ‘I Have a List of Insults’
A CNN panel was highly skeptical of comments by former President Donald Trump claiming to “respect” Barack and Michelle Obama, in light of the many (many, many, many) years of insults he has lobbed their way.
CNN reporter Kristen Holmes had interviewed Trump earlier in the day, asking him about his predecessor in advance of speeches from both Obamas at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Tuesday evening. Holmes described Trump’s comments as “almost a complete turnaround of what we have heard him say about former President Obama before,” and played the video clip:
“I like him, I think he’s a nice gentleman,” Trump replied before dinging Obama on policy. “He was very, very weak on trade. If you take a look at what happened to our country, trade was it was a disaster. Take a look at Japan, take a look at China. Take a look at what happened with some of these countries and what they did.”
“But I happen to like him,” Trump concluded. “I respect him, and I respect his wife.”
Those words were “obviously very different from what we’ve heard from Donald Trump, particularly during his tenure in office,” Holmes told anchor Kaitlan Collins, “when he repeatedly blamed Obama for a lot of shortcomings in his own office, tried to undermine his legacy, and, before that, was the biggest promoter of birtherism, essentially saying that Obama wasn’t eligible to be president.”
“Clearly he is shifting his tune today,” said Holmes.
“Interesting comments,” remarked Collins as special correspondent Jamie Gangel laughed.
“I mean, he accused him of directly spying on his campaign, the birtherism, I mean – ‘I respect him, I respect his wife?'” said Collins.
John King said that he happened to interview Trump the day that Obama released his birth certificate, “and I showed a copy to Donald Trump and he threw it back at me, like that” – he made a tossing gesture – “and he said he was sending a team to Hawaii to investigate.”
King added that Trump has used Obama’s middle name to refer to him as “Barack Hussein Obama –”
“He types it in all caps,” interjected Collins, referring to social media posts in which Trump has typed the name of the 44th president as “Barack HUSSEIN Obama.”
“–raising questions that Obama is not legitimate, that he is not American, and that he shouldn’t have been president,” said King.
Trump’s comments to Holmes, King continued, told him that Trump “has been told, ‘Guess what, sir? You’re losing,'” because voters think he’s “unhinged,” not just Black voters, but also people in the suburbs who “don’t like your tone.”
“Who is that man?” asked Gangel about Trump saying he has “respect” for the Obamas.
“This is about one thing and one thing only,” Gangel continued, “and that’s the campaign and voters – and he is worried about this race. And I mean, I have a list of insults that he has made about both Barack Obama and Michelle Obama – ‘She polls very badly. She’s just terrible’ and so forth and so on.”
Trump had thought when he was running against President Joe Biden, she said, “that he could get some Black votes, that he could get Hispanic votes. He sees what’s going on with Kamala Harris and that’s when they go low, he’s going high for the first time ever.”
“Yeah, we’ll see how long that lasts,” scoffed Collins.
“Start the clock!” said King.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
