Katy Tur gave Erick Erickson waaaay too much credit. She gave him the opportunity to answer a question. Guess what? HE DIDN'T! And he used that opportunity to roll around in "both siderism" and even say we need an external threat to unify us. Isn't that adorable?
For some reason, the "external threat" solution he floated flitted away unnoticed by Tur, though it may be because the "both sides" arguments have the effect of blinding rational people with rage. And, boy was he flinging THAT one around like glitter. Let's count.
1. TUR: What's the first step to calm things down?
ERICKSON: BOTH SIDES decided the only way to get their side to the polls was to get them mad at the other side.
2. TUR: Why not push him to be more of a unifier instead of a divider?
ERICKSON: He needs to lay off the press, but folks on the other side need to "tamp down the rhetoric.
3. EE: Cruz and Collins got ricin sent to them, Republicans are even getting yelled at in restaurants!
4. EE: Both sides need to calm down because arguing about who started it is not helpful (Erick wouldn't thing so if the Dems actually started it, I'll bet...) because... (see #5)
5. EE: both sides can say the other side started it.
6. EE: Both sides need to stop turning the base over to the fringe and the ANGRY MOB.
Amazingly, Tur still seemed calm. I say amazingly, because whenever anyone tells ME to "calm down" they can be assured my reaction will be the furthest thing from calm. Like, you'd be scraping that person off the walls with a spatula. But Tur has handled covering trump on the campaign trail, so Erickson is probably nothing to her, right?
She calmly ticked off all the reasons that the truth is that this toxic environment began with "candidate" trump in 2015. Racism. Misogyny. Violence. Encouraging jail for political opponents. Then Erick had to step in it. He couldn't bow out gracefully. He had to interrupt her, and bring up Obama:
7. EE: And Obama said "bring a gun to a knife fight."
Oh, Erick. Katy took full control at that point, even though Erick clearly couldn't tell...he kept talking and trying to interrupt until she raised her voice and put him in his place like a child.
TUR: (ee tries to interrupt) Hold on. I'm still going. (ee still talking) No. Stop. (ee still talking) No, no, no. Have you ever heard a politician (ee still talking) ERICK. Let me finish. This is MY SHOW. (ee finally shuts up.) Have you EVER heard a politician other than donald trump say "I'm so proud" or give a KUDOS to another POLITICIAN who body slammed a reporter? Have you EVER heard that from anybody else? Other than Donald Trump?
Donna Edwards, who until now, had stayed mostly silent, tried to answer, and Katy said, "Erick is gonna answer this one, hold on, Donna." (Katy, I know you were mad, but talk to me later about that one, mkay?)
Guess what Erickson did? THREE MORE "BOTH SIDES!" And somewhere in there, he even "both sided" her anger, saying "Your blood pressure going up over donald trump right now is a symptom" of what is keeping us from unifying. She shot back, "My blood pressure is going up because he advocates violence....And for you to say it didn't get lowered, that the bar did not get lower when donald trump started running for office is just not true and it's offensive. I'm sorry."
So that makes 10 times in the space of less than five minutes Erick Erickson played the "both sides" card. My question is, why is he even given air time? Is it in the interest of appearing to be fair? Is it because the media seems to think elevating crap like this is the equivalent of showing both sides?
