CNN’s John Berman seemed impatient with a Republican congresswoman’s detailed accounting of the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency — before finally extracting a concession that he’s not focused on the topics voters care most about.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) appeared Tuesday morning on “CNN News Central,” where Berman asked her to respond to a preceding segment that showed Republican voter enthusiasm was lagging on the anniversary of the 79-year-old president’s second inauguration.
“Look, I think it’s no surprise that the party in opposition is more motivated because they’re not happy with the direction that things are going, and that is no matter who’s in power, right?” Malliotakis said.
“The thing is that Republicans have to remind the voters what things were like two years ago. You know, under Joe Biden, we had open borders, we had a record-high 9 percent inflation, gas prices rose to $5 a gallon. Things were not good, and cities like mine, we had illegal immigrants wreaking havoc, these gang members, drug traffickers, etc. Since then, we’ve successfully worked with President Trump to secure the border, we have zero illegal crossings, we have gotten rid of those gangs that were wreaking havoc on our streets.”
“We have a safer country,” she continued. “Crime across all sorts of categories have declined, and we’ve delivered the record-setting tax cuts, which I think is significant when they, beginning next week,” she said before continuing with a long list of what she called Trump’s successes.
“So there’s a lot of good things that people will see economically, as well,” Malliotakis added. “We’re already seeing trillions of dollars in private investment, and remember, President Trump negotiated a ceasefire that released hostages that were being held in Gaza. A lot of good things have happened over the last year, and we’re just getting started.”
Berman attempted several times to break into the congresswoman’s litany and comment on her recitation, and then he attempted to challenge some of her claims.
“Yeah, almost a day-by-day recounting of the last 365 days in office there,” Berman noted. “Congresswoman first of all, inflation was very high under Biden, certainly higher than used to be, but not anywhere near a record. If everything you say is true, then why, in the most recent CNN – hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.”
“Highest in four decades,” Malliotakis insisted.
“It’s not a record,” Berman interjected, as the congresswoman repeated her claim. “It’s not a record. It’s not a record. I’m not denying it was very high, much higher than people are used to. But it wasn’t a record.”
Berman challenged her on how much her constituents care about Trump’s threats to splinter the NATO alliance and take over Greenland.
“I don’t think it’s a priority,” she conceded, “and that’s kind of what I’m trying to say here, is that we need to focus on the things that we’ve done successfully, like lowering taxes, bringing down inflation rates, mortgage rates. You have gas prices are down about $2.80 here in my district. These are things that people want to see and we’re delivering on that.
“But when you focus on things like Greenland in a way that could be hostile, I think that that takes away from the successes.”
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