Charles Kaiser and Paris Dennard were on CNN’s Brooke Baldwin show, to discuss Donald Trump’s alleged disavowing of the “alt-right” or as is more honest, the “white supremacists in our country.” Kaiser was running down a list of how goddamn racist and bigoted Steve Bannon was, when he mixed up his list by attributing a Jeff Sessions quote to Steve Bannon.
Kaiser: But we have bigger problems here. Also in July, you know, he selected as his vice president the most homophobic man in American public life, a person who believes gay people actually do not have the right to exist and then if you don't want to support the alt-right, don't choose as a white house counselor a man who uses the word ‘nigger,’ whose wife says he did not want his daughters to go to a school with too many Jews and don't choose as an attorney general a man who calls the naacp an un-american organization and who we learned in the Guardian today went so far as to prosecute --
Baldwin: Charles, hang on a second. Appreciate you going through all of this but please don't use the "N" word on my show.
Kaiser: I'm sorry, I never use the "N" word except when I'm quoting someone who's been appointed by the president to serve in the oval office since this is such a disgusting moment in our history.
Paris Dennard goes on to say some inane Trump supporting cognitive dissonance thing about Trump having good judgement and that saying he “disavows the alt-right.” Baldwin for her part brought the conversation back to the important thing which was, does Trump denouncing the “alt-right” in a closed door meeting where he can plausibly pretend to deny it, settle the issue? Forget that everything else about Donald Trump’s campaign and appointments to his cabinet are completely and utterly racist and homophobic?
At the end of the piece, Baldwin, seeing her way out, put on the semi-waterworks to try and find a misguided higher ground.
Baldwin: We're done. We're done. Appreciate your voices. I am still -- the more I've sat here and listened to the fact that somebody used the "N" word on this show -- it is not okay. It is not okay, Charles Keiser, I respect you, I enjoy having you on as a guest but not okay, by the way, the claim that Mr. Bannon used the "N" word, I've never heard of that? Sot here’s that. Take a break.
Kaiser apologized for misattributing the quote to Bannon.
The guest, Charles Kaiser, has apologized for "misattributing" the quote to Steve Bannon. Kaiser told Washington Post media reporter Erik Wemple Tuesday afternoon that he meant to say that Trump Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions had used the N-word, not Bannon.
Baldwin, like the rest of the traditional media attacks the messenger and not the people putting out the violent racist message. That’s some weak sauce Brooke Baldwin.