by digby
There will be a lot of words but this is it in a nutshell:
“We have a big problem at this point, because I agree with you a lot. I agree that we have taken [Trump] not seriously, we have not respected his voters, but there is a dark underside here, and S.E. is right,” Jones began.
“He is whipping up and tapping into and punching buttons that are very, very frightening to me and frightening to a lot of people. Number one, when he is playing funny with the Klan, that is not cool.”
Jones continued, “I know this man when he gets passionate about terrorism. I know how he talks about terrorism. The Klan is a terrorist organization that has killed –”
“– A leftist organization,” Lord interrupted.
He answered, “You can put any label on it you want. That’s your game to play.”
He then put an exclamation point on it, saying, “No, you need to take a serious look at the fact that this man has been playing fast and loose and footsie — when you talk about terrorism, he gets passionate. He’s says no, this is wrong. But when you talk about the Klan, oh, I don’t know, I don’t know. That’s wrong.”
Pointing at Lord, he continued, “And then you came on the air and you said this is just like when Reverend Wright was speaking. Reverend Wright never lynched anybody. Reverend Wright never killed anybody. Reverend Wright never put anybody on a post and you guys play these word games. And it is wrong to do in America.”
Lord replied, “It is wrong to understand that these are not leftists.”
“What difference does it make what you call them? Call them chipmunks, they killed people. And don’t play games with that!,” Jones shouted.
Lord taunted, “Don’t hide and say that’s not part of the base of the Democratic party. They were the military arm, the terrorist arm of the Democratic party according to historians”
Jones answered, “I don’t care how they voted 50 years ago. I care who they killed.”
After another back and forth, Jones brought up Trump’s smear of the black kids in the Central Park jogger case, pointing out that after Trump got the entire city stirred up over it and after the kids were proven innocent, he never apologized for what he did.
Jones also raised the things Trump has said about Native Americans and others, to which Lord chided him. “Van, what you’re doing is dividing people. This is what liberals do. You’re dividing people by race.”
Orwell would be nodding approvingly at that one, wouldn’t he?
Jones replied, “The Klan divided people by race. The Klan killed people by race. And he had the opportunity.”
“They did it to further the progressive agenda, hello,” Lord answered.
Jones countered, “That is first of all, so absurd. The Democratic Party of the South in the old days was a racist party. You are correct, sir. They were a violent party. But that’s not the Democratic party of today, so what are you talking about that for? You play these games –”
“That is the Democratic party of today. The Democratic Party of today divides by race,” interrupted Lord.
Jones then related a story about his 7-year old child, saying that he wants him to watch the news but whenever his son watches, he hears such hateful things he doesn’t even know how to explain it to him.
“Tell Donald Trump he needs to, for my children’s sake, if he’s going to lead this country he needs to be as passionate about what is happening to my kid as anybody else’s.”
“We have to be passionate about, as Robert Kennedy used to say, that this country is colorblind,” Lord countered. “Race has no place in American life, or law,” he added.
“We have lost that totally because the Democratic Party insists on dividing people by race,” Lord concluded.
This is a common fatuous “I know you are but what am I” argument these wingnuts use to deny their racism. Lord had used it earlier on CNN.
“Donald Trump isn’t playing the game, although he certainly denounced him,” Lord declared. “I mean, David Duke is a hardcore leftist. He’s an anti-Semite.”
“Yes, Margaret, the Ku Klux Klan is a function of the left. It was the military arm of the Democratic Party,” he added.
This is the recycled garbage about Southern Democrats who actually left the Democratic Party 50 years ago as part of the Republican Party’s Southern Strategy. The KKK hasn’t voted Democrat in decades, but “analysts” like Lord really do take their viewers for fools.
Margaret Hoover called him out on it, too, reminding him that the KKK is a hate group, not a “leftist group,” but to no avail.
Lord insisted, “Margaret, it is a racist hate group from the left. And that counts. That is important to understand. It is not conservative. It has nothing to do with conservatism. All of these Klan members who have been elected to Congress and U.S. Senate and governorships over the years, supporting Franklin Roosevelt because they like Social Security. Let’s get our history straight.”
I don’t know if he believes this drivel but it doesn’t matter. He is prepared to go on CNN and argue with a straight face that President Obama is aligned with the KKK, a notorious left wing organization.
And CNN is prepared to let him. That’s where this election is going.
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