In an interview with Lindsey Graham, CNN‘s Jake Tapper attempted to goad him into apologizing for remarks Trump made about Kamala Harris at a rally. He played a clip of Trump saying, “Kamala is mentally impaired….Joe Biden became mentally impaired, Kamala was born that way…If you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.”
Tapper started off the conversation by acting as though Trump was trying to attack people with special needs. “First of all, there are actual people out there with mental impairments, and that’s insulting to them. Second of all, Vice President Kamala Harris is not mentally impaired.”
Graham responded, “No, I just think she’s crazy liberal, I don’t question her-”
Tapper cut him off, saying, “But what do you think about that rhetoric?”
Some viewers found Tapper’s attempt to get Graham to condemn Trump’s rhetoric ironic and hypocritical, considering they took no responsibility for their rhetoric regarding Trump and his supporters after not one but two assassins shot at him just weeks apart.
Graham refused to take the bait, instead moving the conversation to the policy decisions that he believed indicated a lack of common sense among Democrats. “I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country. They’re crazy liberal. 400,000 people have been let loose in our country — 16,000 people convicted of being a rapist, 13,000 convicted murderers, and 400,000 people generally convicted of crimes released on her watch — it’s not gonna get better.”
Tapper went on to argue with Graham about the claim, insisting their “fact checkers” were able to debunk it at least partially. Graham then pointed to Laken Riley’s killer and argued that if the Biden-Harris administration had better policies, violent killers like him wouldn’t be on the streets. He then segued into foreign policy, medicare for all and the Green New Deal.
Graham concluded, “I’m not saying she’s crazy. I’m saying your party, your policies are batshit crazy.”
Tapper retorted, “let’s focus on Trump’s rhetoric, because that’s what I’m actually asking you about.”
Graham shot back, “The problems with the world are not Trump’s rhetoric — they call him crazy. Pelosi wanted to invoke the 25th amendment. Why don’t you ever talk about that?”
