THIS Is CNN: Guest Rules the GOP ‘Are’ Neo-Nazis, ‘Old Slave Owners’ Ignoring Lynchings

Curtis Houck
August 16th, 2017 2:19 PM
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For anyone who thinks CNN is dedicated to bringing the American people together, you’re sadly mistaken. Case in point two examples from CNN International on early Tuesday and Wednesday mornings where guest Segun Oduolowu declared the GOP to be neo-Nazis while leaders like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are “old slave owners” who ignored lynchings.

Let’s take the early Tuesday comments first. Oduolowu first lambasted the business CEOs who quit the President’s economic councils for even joining them to begin with because “this feels like fake outrage to me” since “[y]ou knew what this man was.” [Beginning at the 4:43 mark]

Oduolowu pivoted to addressing fellow Los Angeles-based guest and GOP strategist John Thomas, informing him that the neo-Nazis are the Republican Party and he’s “in bed” with them [emphasis mine]: 

As a Republican, when you have basically sold your soul to the alt-right, to people who are marching the streets of a college town — an institution for high learning where slaves actually built that university. When they are marching and you own the presidency, you pretty much own the judiciary, you own most of the elected officials and the government, what country were they — are they losing? They are the GOP right now. They are the GOP. You are in bed. You are in bed with the enemy, John. So, please, look. I love you, brother, but defend what you’ve guys done. 

Roughly 24 hours later, Oduolowu was back at it following President Trump’s controversial press conference saying that there were good people on “both sides” in Saturday’s antifa and neo-Nazi clashes that left well-being counter-protesters caught up in the violence.

Oduolowu argued that it’s unfair to state that “this rabid base of white nationalists and alt-right that support Trump is a small one, but I think it's larger than people really actually realize because when the leadership of the Republican Party are turning their heads and looking the other way when all of this is going on, it shows almost tacit agreement.” [Remarks start at the 6:12 mark]

Trashing House Speaker Paul Ryan’s condemnation of the President and Mitch McConnell’s lack thereof (at the time), Oduolowu declared the Republican leaders reminded him of “slave owners” and people who did nothing to stop lynchings of African-Americans [emphasis mine]:

These people that are surrounding him remind of the old slave owners in the South who knew that lynching and all of that stuff was bad but they prefer to turn their head and look the other way as long as they weren't the ones who were taking the front fire and they weren't the ones actually saying what Trump is saying. So I don't want to read the body language of generals anymore. I don't want the statements to be measured. I want to call those people who say that they're conservative but that they don't agree with the racism and the bigotry. How they can still keep supporting this man. Because to me it looks like that old Southern gentlemen turning his head while the black people got lynched. And that kid that got beaten in a parking garage didn't get any — didn't get the type of news coverage he was supposed to but a white girl that got run over by a car did.

How classy. And he received zero pushback for this from co-hosts Isaha Sesay and John Vause. 

Earlier in the late-night Los Angles CNN Newsroom, CNN political commentator and conservative talk radio host John Phillips thrashed these neo-Nazi losers and even brought some humor to the discussion when it came to how no serious person should happen to stumble upon a neo-Nazi rally [Starts at the 1:28 mark]: 

I think that if you went to that rally and you saw one swastika, you would turn around and leave. It's like if you go into a women's restroom by accident, you look around, if you don't see any urinals except for the sinks then you say those are really high urinals over there, you turn around and leave.

Oduolowu wouldn’t concede it to this writer on Twitter, but by suggesting all conservatives and Republicans are or are okay with neo-Nazis and slave owners, he’s making in-kind contributions to the President’s reelection campaign. 

Insulting almost 63 million people who voted for the President isn’t a wise move. Then again, we know this is the media strategy because anything less than full suppression of conservative thought in favor of leftist rule with abortions for everyone, an anti-Israeli foreign policy, and single-payer health care.

Spoiler alert, conservatives and Republicans don’t have to become full-blown liberals in order to stand against the hate of these KKK, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist losers. Unfortunately, the media won’t be satisfied until there’s full dissension from the GOP and President Trump is called out by name. 

Exit question for the lefties out there: Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush released a joint statement denouncing “racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms.” Because they didn’t mention President Trump by name, are they also racist cowards?

 

Here’s the relevant transcript from CNN International’s CNN Newsroom: Live from Los Angeles on August 15 and 16:

CNN Newsroom: Live from Los Angeles
August 15, 2017
12:15 a.m. Eastern

SEGUN ODUOLOWU: Well, I think that they should not take much comfort at all because this feels like fake outrage to me. You knew what this man was when you supported him. You knew what this man was. He entered politics by denouncing the first African-American President and asking for his birth certificate then he attacked a woman running for president and denounced women and called them all types of sexist names, so this is par for the course. I don’t expect much from this President but I would ask John this. [TO JOHN THOMAS] As a Republican, when you have basically sold your soul to the alt-right, to people who are marching the streets of a college town — an institution for high learning where slaves actually built that university. When they are marching and you own the presidency, you pretty much own the judiciary, you own most of the elected officials and the government, what country were they — are they losing? They are the GOP right now. They are the GOP. You are in bed. You are in bed with the enemy, John. So, please, look. I love you, brother, but defend what you’ve guys done. 

(....)

August 16, 2017
12:05 a.m. Eastern

JOHN PHILLIPS: Look, I don't think Donald Trump is a racist. I think on this subject though there are four points that should be made and made in this order. The first point is the groups that were behind the Unite the Right march are horrible people — all of them. The neo-Nazis, the white supremacists, the white nationalists — all of them. Number two is that they have a constitutional right to be there. They had a constitutional right to spew their hatred. We've seen the courts reaffirm this over and over and over again going back to Skokie and the KKK to this particular case where the ACLU defended their right to be there and they had the proper permit. Three — any one of those members of those groups that broke the law when they were there, that attacked police officers, that attacked counter protesters, that ran someone over with their car -- they should be prosecuted by the fullest extent of the law. And four, counter-protesters who were there who broke the law and committed acts of violence — acts of violence should also be prosecuted. I think the problem that he made today was he over-emphasized four, instead of going through one, two, three —

VAUSE: So there were fine people over in that group —

PHILLIPS: No, I don't believe that. I think that if you went to that rally and you saw one swastika, you would turn around and leave. It's like if you go into a women's restroom by accident, you look around, if you don't see any urinals except for the sinks then you say those are really high urinals over there, you turn around and leave.

VAUSE: Ok.

ISHA SESAY: Segun — to you, let me bring you in. Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader said, by the President not taking sides on Tuesday, he's shown what side he is on. Where do you stand on this issue? I mean you just heard John say that he doesn't believe the President is racist. Where do you stand?

SEGUN ODUOLOWU: Well, I agree with Chuck Schumer on that point. Again — I know John pretty well and we've spoken on the radio before so let me measure these comments correctly. John — you can't be serious. I mean what President Trump did today was probably the dumbest, most idiotic thing I've ever actually seen a sitting president do where just like you said there were fine people in the march. If you're marching alongside swastikas and the Nazi flag, I don't care what your point is anymore. You lost me at Nazi. And I saw confederate flags marching side by side with neo-Nazi flags. So when the President is going to say that the people that protest Nazis and are violently opposed to Nazis are just as bad as the Nazis themselves, he loses that argument. He loses me. And quite frankly, he should lose — he should lose all credibility and the power to govern anymore because what he is doing is dividing a nation and doing it piece by piece.

(....)

SESAY: John Phillips — a lot of people looking to the GOP. They have of course, come out and expressed their displeasure. A lot of them including Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, has put a tweet that he posted earlier on and basically in that tweet he effectively as we see it there: We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no more ambiguity.” Yes, that's Paul Ryan there. He's saying we must clear. White Supremacy is repulsive. But he doesn't call the President out by name. Why?

PHILLIPS: Yes. Look, Paul Ryan is 100 percent right with what he said in that tweet. John McCain and other Republicans who are leaders in the legislature have done the exact same thing. That's what they all should be doing. There is a big disagreement when it comes to politics between Republicans in the legislature and the President. We've seen that not just when it comes to, you know, stylistic politics. We've seen it come down to policy. We saw it with health care. We've seen it happen with certain foreign policy issues. We're going to see it with tax reform. This is not something that's going to go away. They're going to butt heads.

SESAY: Can I push back on that just for a second —

PHILLIPS: Sure.

SESAY: This is bigger than politics. This is about what this country is. It's about who this country — what it is, where it's come from, where it's going —

PHILLIPS: Right. And they're making their — 

SESAY: This is a moment that —

PHILLIPS: — they're making their position very clear. And by the way, the position that Trump had earlier in this week was the position that he should have just left it at because that was the right tone. That statement that came out earlier this week —

MATTHEW LITTMAN: But that's not his position. That's not —

VAUSE: That was like — that was like, you know, a hostage video.

(....)

VAUSE: Segun — yes very quickly, Segun. I wanted to ask you this question because we heard from Paul Ryan a very tepid statement. Mitch McConnell was — according to Politico, a spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell said the Kentucky Republican had no new comment in response to Trump's remarks on Tuesday. So that's the leadership of the Republican Party. Yes, Republicans lawmakers have condemned Trump but the leadership is not really taking a stand here.

ODUOLOWU: Right. [TO SARA SIDNER] And so I just wanted to address this to Sara — while I was shaking my head while you were talking I think — I meant no disrespect by it. What I was doing was you said that that base, this rabid base of white nationalists and alt-right that support Trump is a small one. But I think it's larger than people really actually realize because when the leadership of the Republican Party are turning their heads and looking the other way when all of this is going on, it shows almost tacit agreement. I know what Trump is. That really — it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. But bothers me is when a Mitch McConnell has no new comments. It bothers me when Paul Ryan won't call out what he says to be wrong and repugnant. These people that are surrounding him remind of the old slave owners in the South who knew that lynching and all of that stuff was bad but they prefer to turn their head and look the other way as long as they weren't the ones who were taking the front fire and they weren't the ones actually saying what Trump is saying. So I don't want to read the body language of generals anymore. I don't want the statements to be measured. I want to call those people who say that they're conservative but that they don't agree with the racism and the bigotry. How they can still keep supporting this man. Because to me it looks like that old Southern gentlemen turning his head while the black people got lynched. And that kid that got beaten in a parking garage didn't get any — didn't get the type of news coverage he was supposed to but a white girl that got run over by a car did.