Throughout the 2024 election campaign season, we were constantly hearing about what a supposed threat to democracy Donald Trump, now the president-elect was. The Harris-Walz campaign doubled down in the final weeks, with Vice President Kamala Harris ratcheting up the comparisons between Trump and Adolf Hitler, and declaring Trump to be a fascist. Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) also doubled down on referring to Trump supporters at the October 27 rally at Madison Square Garden as Nazis. And yet, given how President Joe Biden and Trump were all smiles during their meeting at the White House earlier this week, did Democrats even believe such narratives?
During Thursday's episode of "CNN This Morning," Scott Jennings held up a copy of a newspaper showing a smiling Biden and Trump meeting at the White House. "I'm shocked," he said. "I mean did you ever think you'd see literal Hitler in the Oval Office with the president of the United States?"
As has often been the case on CNN, those also on the program tried to deny the reality even as Jennings presented it to them quite clearly. Meghan Hays, formerly of the Biden White, and even host Kasie Hunt tried to take issue and claim that such narratives weren't even used.
"I mean Biden didn't--didn't say that literally," Hunt tried to argue, as Jennings reminded her "it was the underpinning of the Democratic campaign." While Hays still tried to argue otherwise, Jennings reminded her that we constantly heard how "Donald Trump is a fascist." While he pointed out "I'm glad it's happening," speaking of such a meeting, he also said, "but what it tells me, and what it ought to tell Democrats is, they didn't mean any of it. It was all campaign rhetoric. And I think, to me, if you really meant--if you really meant any of it, this wouldn't be happening."
As Hays repeatedly tried to claim "I don't think that's fair," Jennings emphasized that "it totally blows up the way they ran this campaign at the end of the campaign."
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Something tells me the Dems didn’t really believe all the fascist Hitler talk. Can’t put my finger on why. Just a hunch. pic.twitter.com/TIIyQe3dRx
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) November 14, 2024
CNN's Leah Wright Rigueur also similarly went on to note that such a meeting between Trump and Biden "undermine[s] this argument that Democrats have been making for a very long time about fascism, right?" She pointed out how the question is, "do you sit down with fascism? But it's also important to remember that they see this as a really important part of the transition for free and fair elections."
Similarly, Tony Kinnett of The Daily Signal's "The Tony Kinnett Cast" addressed the meeting during his Thursday night show for his "Unnecessary Hot Takes" segment, specifically how people, especially politicians, try to sweet talk their opponents after calling them threats and dangers.
As he played a clip of Biden and Trump's jovial meeting, Kinnett reminded that "just a couple of weeks ago, this was Biden calling Trump 'an existential danger to the constitution and the democracy and the republic of the United States,'" as he went on to show Biden making such remarks during a previous media hit.
"Okay, you just, you cannot have it both ways," Kinnett stressed. "This is insane," he continued, expressing hope for politicians to just be the same person all the time.
Kinnett also pointed out how Biden refused to even directly answer a reporter as to if he still thought Trump was a threat to democracy, instead responding that he was going to see Trump on Wednesday, which he did.
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— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) November 14, 2024
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