On Chris Cuomo's CNN program this week, professional Trump shade-thrower Ana Navarro got into a heated debate with Trump supporter Steve Cortes over immigration. Much of the discussion was a shouty mess, and the seriousness of the exchange was made clear early on when Navarro pulled out her nail file to help illustrate her antipathy toward a weak point made by Donald Trump, Jr. about the efficacy of walls. "Nice prop," Cuomo remarked.
As the discussion progressed, the topic shifted to crime rates among immigrants. Cortes dubiously claimed there is "conflicting" data on whether immigrants (as an aside, I detest the conflation of legal and illegal immigrants) commit more per capita crimes than native born Americans (the consensus I've seen is that this pro-immigrant statistic is accurate), but went on to correctly say that any crime committed by someone who entered the United States illegally is a problem. "The illegal crime rate should be zero," he said, just as Navarro sighed heavily and filed her nails on camera. Skip ahead to the 8:45 mark and let it roll:
"She's doing her nails again," Cuomo noted, setting Cortes off: "You can do your nails," he fumed. "You know who can't do their nails? People who have been killed, Ana, by dangerous, known illegal aliens who've been allowed to stay in this country because of the leftist policies that people like you promote in so-called sanctuary cities." Navarro dismissively waved her hand at the camera, telling Cortes that she's "tired" of his "ad hominem" attacks, after which the two combatants talked over each other unintelligibly. Cuomo finally ended the segment by telling Cortes that the shutdown is "on your head, my brother."
I understand that Navarro's designated role is to be the snarky, sassy Latina and nominal Republican who blasts Trump all day, every day. That's fine. I also grant that Navarro didn't seem to intentionally file her nails specifically in reaction to stories of innocent Americans killed by illegal immigrants. But she was doing so in the midst of an argument about crimes committed by illegal immigrants, which isn't exactly a light subject. You might think that someone would want to make clear that regardless of his or her disdain for certain arguments, they are of course disturbed by heinous crimes like this, and have no interest in minimizing the pain of loved ones.
But that's not what Navarro did, instead raging about how little she cares whether or not Cortes calls her a leftist. It wasn't a good look, but CNN seemed to think it strong content, sharing the video embedded above with the caption, "Navarro files her nails during border wall debate." Mission accomplished, I guess. Speaking of CNN, I'll leave you with several people responding to White House correspondent Jim Acosta's latest vacuous, specious video about the supposed tranquility at the southern border. Here's former CNN reporter Peter Hamby blowing up the whole stupid premise:
I am *shocked* that a glib video, customized for re-tweets and filmed in broad daylight along one of the more secure parts of the RGV by a reporter who parachuted in for the day, did not reveal anything dramatic. https://t.co/TgPzMtU8pl
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) January 10, 2019
And Sen. Bill Cassidy is just trolling:
Brilliant reporting from CNN’s @Acosta —walls work! Thank you Jim! https://t.co/Ymw9iCgPzx
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) January 10, 2019
On substance, it's been a rough few days for Jim. But if the goal is attention, in the mold of Navarro, he's winning. Big league.