CNN praises Trump’s successes in stunning U-turn on his record: ‘Much better than expected’
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CNN anchor Sara Sidner stunned viewers this week by highlighting Donald Trump’s recent wins.
The host – who has called out the president in the past – laid out a list of Trump-era successes now taking center stage while interviewing a skeptical congressional democrat Thursday.
‘Look, here are some things that have happened. Gas prices down. Economic indicators are decent. Brand new jobs report shows that it’s much better than expected, and border crossings are down,’ Sidner first told Florida Rep Debbie Wasserman-Schultz during the exchange on CNN News Central.
‘And now, Trump’s mega-spending bill looks like it’s going to be passed by Republicans.’
The bill – dubbed the Big Beautiful Bill – has since been passed.
Sidner went on to pose a pointed question. ‘How do you Democrats fight back against the wins that Trump can tout?’
Wasserman-Schultz immediately bristled, firing back: ‘Well, it depends how you define wins, Sara,’ before launching into a heated tirade against Trump – even pointing out that his bill goes against past promises not to touch Medicaid or Medicare.
A meltdown ensued, months after CNN CEO Mark Thompson reportedly demanded a drastic tone-down in anti-Trump rhetoric from staff amid tanking ratings.
CNN host Sara Sidner stood by Donald Trump ‘s recent successes while hosting CNN News Central on Thursday – along with a congressional democrat who looked to downplay them
Wasserman-Schultz responded with skepticism and vitriol, embarking on a scary rant that forecast doom for Americans
Sidner appeared to abide, as Wasserman-Schultz refused to acknowledge Trump’s recent wins.
‘I mean, the way I can summarize this – this big, ugly bill best is, Republicans caved, Trump lied, and people will die,’ Wasserman-Schultz said. ‘This bill does kick 17 million people off of their health care.
‘That’s people who are on Medicaid, who are extremely vulnerable, like veterans and the elderly, the disabled and children.’
Forecasting people going hungry due to incoming cuts to nutrition assistance, the congresswoman declared: ‘This is a bill that is going to cause tremendous pain.’
She maintained the bill ‘is incredibly unpopular with the public’ due to it stripping away things she said ‘ensure that [Americans] can remain healthy and safe.
‘And that their families can be cared for, and that they can have a middle class lifestyle.’
The final version of the bill is set to strip funding from the federal health insurance programs over the next 10 years – a prospect progressives have painted as a means to give tax cuts to billionaires.
Wasserman-Schultz, 58, made that claim as well, telling Sidner: ‘This bill is all in service to taking care of the wealthiest, most fortunate Americans.
‘Look, here are some things that have happened. Gas prices down. Economic indicators are decent. Brand new jobs report shows that it’s much better than expected, and border crossings are down,’ Sidner told the Florida Democrat, who refused to acknowledge Trump’s recent wins
‘It explodes the deficit, and it raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion to give tax breaks to the wealthy.’
The congresswoman then turned to the jobs report, which she refused to accept at face value.
A stronger-than-expected 147,000 jobs was added to the US economy in June, Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday revealed – statistics Wasserman-Schultz argued were misleading.
‘That jobs report you just mentioned, the overwhelming majority of those jobs are actually government jobs and education jobs that look to be more like substitute teachers,’ Wasserman-Schultz said, despite an almost identical amount being added to industries like health care, leisure, and hospitality.
‘There are really not many jobs in that jobs report that they can point to that are in the private market.
She concluded by branding the report ‘hollow’, not addressing Trump’s successes along the Southern Border.
Crossings there have dropped to levels not seen in decades, numbers released Thursday showed.
On Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives passed the Big Beautiful Bill late Thursday as well by a vote of 218 to 214.
Unlike CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins on Monday, Sinder chose to focus on the recent developments. Collins, on her show The Source, panned the president for vowing to not cut federal health insurance and then reneging on the promise
In return, Wasserman-Schultz said the vote was purposely being done ‘in the dead of night [so] people don’t know what’s going on’, leading Sidner to change the subject and ask whether Democrats had a strategic response ahead of midterms next year.
She said the party will continue to call attention to rural hospitals and nursing homes closing and approved tax cuts for a group she framed as ‘the wealthiest, most fortunate Americans.’
‘It’s an abomination, and they will pay for it at the ballot box next year when Democrats take the majority back because people are going to rebel.’
Sidner, 53, then changed the subject, pivoting to Trump’s promised Alligator Alcatraz in Wasserman-Schultz’s home state.
‘It’s an outrage, an abomination. It is going to upend and waste hundreds of billions of dollars that we’ve already spent on Everglades restoration.
‘It should be abandoned immediately,’ she said. Sidner ended the segment there, not offering any opinion on the matter.
Unlike Sidner, who simply reported the news, Collins played a supercut on The Source Monday that honed in on the president’s repeated promises to avoid such cuts.
Last week, Collins and Trump had a testy back-and-forth during a press conference at a NATO summit in the Netherlands, where Trump ripped CNN as ‘fake news CNN’.
The final version of the bill is set to strip funding from federal health insurance programs over the next 10 years. Collins played a supercut on The Source Monday that featured several comments from the president promising to not make those cuts
They also had a heated exchange aboard Air Force One last month, after Collins floated a series of questions about the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Sidner, in May, stood up against Trump as well, during a fiery exchange with Congressman Pat Harrigan (R-NC) over the president’s comments defending his tariffs.
‘Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30,’ Trump has said – leading Sidner to take issue.
“Congressman, would your constituents think it’s funny to tell them to stop buying things and to stop buying dolls for their children while the economy is in a decline?” Sidner said after Harrigan laughed off one of her questions.
She also pressed the congressman on April’s more lackluster job report, which June’s appeared to address.
‘You think the economy is good even though the GDP has actually receded for the first time in many years?’ she asked, months after calling out the conservative for his complaints about Democratic rhetoric amid the ongoing threats across Springfield, Ohio, following his ‘eating the pets’ claims.
A few weeks before, last July, Sinder chided Trump for calling Kamala Harris ‘real garbage.’
Trump has been at odds with CNN since his first term, repeatedly slamming its coverage since.
He revived his claim that the network is a purveyor of ‘fake news’ after in-depth reporting into his strikes on Iran that questioned their effectiveness.
