Trump surrogate Paris Dennard on Sunday lashed out at CNN contributor Tara Setmayer after she excoriated President Donald Trump for praising authoritarian leaders and embarrassing the U.S. with his "petulant" attitude.
CNN host Fredricka Whitfield noted during a Sunday panel discussion that Trump had made a number of controversial statements at a Saturday rally near Pittsburgh. He praised the leaders of North Korea and China, while encouraging the crowd to rise up against the U.S. media. Additionally, the president falsely claimed that a majority of women in the U.S. voted for him and suggested that drug offenders should be executed.
"This is a terrible idea," Setmayer said of executing drug offenders. "The fact that the president of the United States would even entertain the examples of a totalitarian country like China or the Philippines, where their president is engaged in extra-judicial killings as something that we should consider here in the U.S."
"It just gives you an insight into where his mind is," she continued. "And this adulation for strongmen, which should concern every American. I figure I'm not alone. When I watched that rally last night, my stomach was in knots. There were so many things that this president did during that rally that were stomach turning for me as an American watching these democratic norms and ideals and where common decency is no longer currency anymore, no longer something to be expected of the president of the United States."
The CNN contributor added: "Watching these people clapping for a president behaving that way, it concerns me. And I think we as a country need to take a look at what's going on here. It's seems like rhetoric is more in control of what reality is coming from Donald Trump and his supporters, as opposed to what's truthful, what's factual. Those are casualties under this president."
According to Setmayer, the "stress on our democratic norms" is more important that party ideology.
"These examples of the way Trump behaves and the way people accept it and enable it," she noted, "this is how democracy dies and dictators rise. And I think we need to stop just pointing to tax cuts and the economy is great and completely ignoring what this president is doing to the office of the president."
Setmayer's argument seemed to agitate Dennard, who was still smarting when he was asked about Trump's false claim that a majority of American women voted for him. In fact, the vote percentages Trump uttered are only true when exclusively white women are counted, which he failed to mention.
Dennard insisted that the president's statement was true regardless of the facts.
"Look at the women who are serving in that White House," he charged. "It is diverse and is is positive and it is something every one of those voters in that auditorium can support. I saw tons of women there that were actually cheering enthusiastically about what the president is doing. Because it is positive."
"You can focus on the negative," Dennard told Setmayer. "But the voters and the American people who are outside the bubble, outside of the beltway and outside of the punditry of people like Tara Setmayer understand what this president is doing and they appreciate it and they support it. And I'm going to stand with the voters rather than standing with somebody who's coming on shows and trying to pick and choose what the president is or is not saying."
"He won the Electoral College vote and he's the president! Get over it!" Dennard shouted when Setmayer tried to respond. "He won! That's how we work!"
"This kind of petulant, 'Get over it, he won, oh my gosh,'" Setmayer said. "That attitude right there is why so many people feel that what Donald Trump has created in this country is bigger than just, 'Oh, he won and you didn't so get over it.' It's nothing to do with that."
"If Barack Obama did a fraction of what Donald Trump did last night just at that rally alone, you, Paris Dennard, would be on here going off," she insisted. "So I don't want to hear it, you castigating those of us who call the president of the United States out for being a liar and being dishonest and acting like a child from the podium when he's supposed to be president of the United States. It's nothing to do about who won or who lost."
"You could be respectful to the president of the United States," Dennard shot back. "Try that with your rhetoric towards him."
"He should be respectful of the office of the presidency!" Setmayer exclaimed. "When he acts like the president of the United States, I'll show him the respect that office deserves. But until then, I will continue to call out the fact that none of this is normal."
Watch the video below from CNN.
