Throughout the course of the last four years, President Donald Trump and CNN have been at odds with one another. We've seen the various stunts the network's reporters have pulled throughout the Trump administration. Trump has repeatedly called the network out for "fake news" while CNN continually defends the network's reporting. CNN, however, proved just how much they despise the Trump administration. The confirmation came on Wednesday during their coverage of President Trump leaving the White House.
"He looks small. He just looks like a small man. And that is exactly the way that he has handled his presidency since he lost and he has appeared smaller and smaller and less and less courageous," Dana Bash said. "And it does take courage. It takes fortitude, it takes a sense of self to be able to not do this, to be able to get into the motorcade with your successor, to take that ride, which we have seen and heard in so many history books. There are conversations that happen that are snapshots, that are legacy moments, and that is not happening."
The rest of the panel chimed in, saying President Barack Obama rode in a motorcade with President Trump four years ago, despite Trump's "birtherism" claims.
"As someone who has covered this president, he loves this part of the job, this part of the job where he's saluted, where he has he red carpet rolled out for him, where he gets to board Marine One, that is what he loves so much about the job," Abby Phillip said. "Not so much, it seems, the other parts of the job, that he has, by all accounts and all reporting, not really been doing since at least Election Day, really neglecting so much of the hard work of the presidency, but always wanting to have these moments where he's treated with deference and being treated with the kind of pomp and circumstance of the job. That's what this is all about, even though there's so much grandeur to what usually happens at the Capitol with the outgoing president and the incoming-president and it is sad that we will be missing that today."
Jake Tapper jumped in, saying Trump is the first president since George H.W. Bush to lose re-election. The difference, Tapper said, is that Bush 43 had "class and dignity" and went on to become friends with his successor, President Bill Clinton.
Van Jones zeroed in on Biden's approach to immigration and rescinding the Muslim travel ban Trump put into place. Jones said those families and Americans across the board are watching the inauguration with "relief."
Here's the moment Trump left the White House for the final time. pic.twitter.com/wnLo379ocA
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 20, 2021