CNN still looks like they're doing their best to try to compete with Faux "news" in the wingnut department with this latest edition of Crossfire. Co-host and disgraced former Speaker of the House and serial adulterer Newt Gingrich was more than happy to welcome one of his potential fellow GOP pretend-presidential candidate grifters to the set this Wednesday, otherwise known as Fox regular Dr. Ben Carson.
After a round of the usual attacks we've been hearing against President Obama since making his speech on foreign policy this week, and with Gingrich doing his best to throw every wrench he could find during the discussion when anyone dared to mention the fact that the Bush administration lied us into invading Iraq, Carson found himself being challenged for once on his ridiculous assertion that America is "very much like Nazi Germany."
What followed was Carson doing everything humanly possible to try to weasel out of what his actual words were and resorting to telling his fellow guest, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland that he needs to read his book as a diversion to throw him off point at the end of the segment.
Strickland did alright with rebutting a lot of his nonsense until the very end of the clip above, where he let Carson rattle him a bit. Watching segments like this one makes me miss Cenk Uygur being on the air. I doubt Carson would ever agree to come on the air with him in a million years, but the bull he's spewing here is definitely worthy of a take down as harsh as you'd hear from Uygur.
I was happy to at least hear Strickland blast Carson -- who loves to play the gentile, I'm not a partisan and "why can't we all just get along" game -- for just how divisive the bile he's spewing on a regular basis actually is.
GINGRICH: So let me ask you this. We just saw a minute ago current news about what is potentially an American suicide bomber in Syria, one of the places where I think Obama's clearly failed to meet the goals he stated a year ago. You can go from Nigeria to North Korea. You can go from Ukraine to the South China Sea. Tell me where you see America being strong in that entire zone.
STRICKLAND: Well, it depends on how you define strength, Newt. I think in terms of our country's values, in terms of our country's commitment to justice and freedom, we're a very strong country.
And, you know, the good doctor here compared our country to Nazi Germany, and -- and that's the kind of rhetoric that is divisive and really tears our country apart at a time -- when it comes to foreign policy, we ought to be one nation and we ought to be pulling together.
GINGRICH: Do you want to explain that?
CARSON: Yes, let me address that, because what I said is that most of the people in Nazi Germany did not believe in what Hitler was doing. But did they speak up? Did they say anything? And making the analogy that that could happen anywhere where people don't speak up, particularly when they disagree with what's going on, No. 1 --
STRICKLAND: Doctor, you speak up --
CARSON: No. No. 2, you said that what I had said previously, all of those things occurred under George Bush. The uprising in Iran occurred in 2009. The last time I checked, Barack Obama was president in 2009. And the invasion of Georgia occurred during the transitional period. So, how can you say that those are George Bush's fault?
CUTTER: It actually didn't. But let me just clarify one thing.
CARSON: During the political season when we were in the process --
CUTTER: Right, we had a current president at that time. It was George W. Bush.
But let me just clarify. Are you saying that America is like Nazi Germany? I'm confused by that comment.
CARSON: No, what I am saying, and to me it doesn't sound like a conflict statement at all. I said that people in Nazi Germany did not, most of them, believe in what Hitler was doing. But instead of protesting, instead of registering their displeasure, they simply decided to go along to get along. That is a very dangerous thing to do.
CUTTER: And is it happening --
CARSON: And I was using that as an example of how dangerous that can be. And I'm making a point to the American people that if, in fact, you feel differently about what's going on, you should not be shut up. You need to talk about --
STRICKLAND: Doctor, no one is being shut up in America. You're on FOX News. You write books. Newt talks, Stephanie talks, I talk.
CARSON: What is that?
STRICKLAND: I don't engage in political correctness. Maybe you do. But, Doctor, these are your quotes. You said, "We live in a Gestapo age, and we're" -- this is a quote -- "we're very much like Nazi Germany." And then you write a book about America the beautiful. That seems to be such a contradiction.
CARSON: Did you read the book?
STRICKLAND: I have not read the book, no.
CARSON: I rest my case.
STRICKLAND: Why?
CARSON: You don't even know what the book is about.
STRICKLAND: The fact that I haven't read your book?
CARSON: Because you're making these claims and then using the fact that I write a book to back up your claims and you haven't even read the book.
STRICKLAND: I'm using the title of your book, "America the Beautiful," and that's a beautiful phrase.
CARSON: Did you ever hear the phrase that you can't judge a book by its cover? Do you know why people say that? Maybe because you need to read the book.
STRICKLAND: Then maybe you can't judge a book by the title. I don't know.
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