CNN's New Day hosts Christi Paul and Victor Blackwell had on Harvard professor and author Daniel Ziblatt, who was there to talk about his new book, "How Democracies Die." But of course they paired his segment with Trump apologist and lying motormouth Jack Kingston, who supplied ten minutes straight of interrupting, whataboutism and liberal straw men.
"There are four criteria. And you believe that President Trump meets those. Is the -- I'll ask the headline question here. Is the president in your perspective a threat to our democracy?" Blackwell asked.
"We wrote this book, 'How Democracies Die,' inspired in part by the campaign and the checklist during the campaign season," Ziblatt said.
"He went after the media, he condoned violence at election rallies, he said he wouldn't necessarily accept the results of the election. So this was all talk and many people have said, 'Take it easy, this is only talk.' But we, having looked around the world, this set off alarm bells for us because we've seen when democracies die, often political leaders come to power displaying these same tendencies. Certainly once in office this is a different question, but this should make citizens and potential allies of the president nervous."
"So Jack, when you listen to the president, because let's face it, words matter at the end of the day, he is the president, even his tweets are considered to be official statements from the president, do you see him edging toward demeaning democracy in some way or disintegrating it?" Paul asked.
Kingston then served up a heapin' helpin' of his special word salad: "Blah blah blah Ivy League liberals, blah blah blah Hillary Clinton, blah blah blah Joe Biden, blah blah blah OBAMA, blah blah blah Maxine Waters, blah blah blah Bernie Sanders, blah blah blah ANTIFA! RESISTANCE!"
Jack Kingston is an insidious double-talker, and this segment is a perfect example of how he operates. He is pushing the same tactics the authors rightly decry.
Watch the whole thing, so you can inoculate yourself and share your insight with others.
