‘This Was the Most Divisive Speech I’ve Ever Heard From an American President’ Says David Gergen
President Donald Trump shocked the nation and the world when he took the oath of office, then delivered what many called the most divisive inaugural speech ever given. On his 100th day in office, the President flew to Pennsylvania and did it again.
“This was the most divisive speech I’ve ever heard from a sitting American president,” said CNN political analyst David Gergen, who has served in senior advisory roles in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton administrations.
“He played to his base and he treated his other listeners, the rest of the people who have been disturbed about him or opposed him, he treated them basically as, ‘I don’t give a damn what you think because you’re frankly like the enemy.’ I thought it was a deeply disturbing speech,” Gergen said.
Trump attacked CNN and MSNBC, specifically calling them “fake news.” He took a swing at the “failing New York Times,” and, hypocritically called out op-eds in The Washington Post. Two hours earlier that day, The Washington Post published an op-ed by President Donald Trump.
Also during his celebratory speech in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – Trump has mostly traveled only to states he won – he called immigrants “vicious snakes.”
The President apparently has done this before, though it escaped many news reports. From his suit coat pocket he pulled out what he called a poem, it’s actually lyrics to a song written by an American singer, songwriter, playwright, poet, and yes, civil rights activist, Oscar Brown Jr.
The song is titled, “The Snake,” and Trump dedicated it on Saturday to Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Border Patrol, and ICE agents “for doing such an incredible job.”
He wrongly credited it Al Wilson, who sang the lyrics but did not write them.
“I thought of it having to do with our borders and people coming in and we know what we’re going to have,” Trump told supporters. One week before he was sworn in he told supporters he said he saw it being about Syrian refugees.
“We’re going to have problems. We have to very, very carefully vet. We have to be smart. We have to be vigilant. So here it is, ‘The Snake.’ It’s called ‘The Snake,'” Trump began.
“On her way to work one morning down the path along the lake a tender hearted woman saw a poor, half frozen snake. His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew. ‘The poor thing,’ she cried, ‘I’ll take you in, and I’ll take care of you.'”
The President interjected, saying, “The border.”
‘Take me in oh, tender woman, take me in, oh, tender woman,’ sighs the vicious snake.
She wrapped him up all cozy in a comforter of silk, and laid him by her fireside with some honey and some milk.
She hurried home from work that night and as soon as she arrived, she found that pretty snake she’d taken in had been revived.
‘Take me in, oh, tender woman. Take me in for heaven’s sake. Take me in oh, tender woman,’ sighed that vicious snake.
She clutched him to her bosom, ‘You’re so beautiful,’ she cried. ‘But if I hadn’t brought you in by now, oh, heavens, you would have died.’
She stroked his pretty skin again and kissed him and held him tight. But instead of saying ‘thank you,’ that snake gave her a vicious bite!
‘Take me he in oh, tender woman, take me in for heaven’s sake. Take me in, oh, tender woman,’ sighed the vicious snake.
‘I have saved you,’ cried the woman. ‘And now I’m going to die.’
‘Oh, shut up, silly woman,’ said the reptile with a grin. Y’ou knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.’
The Huffington Post notes “Trump often cited the lyrics during talks about immigration and the refugee crisis to back up his claims that allowing refugees into the U.S. could open the borders to terrorists,” and that Brown’s family “had asked Trump to stop reading the work at his rallies.”Â
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