The opening video package on this week’s CNN State of the Union aired a weird little montage that, while specifically critical of certain rhetoric aired on the stump by Former President Donald Trump, subliminally suggests that “dark days” await the country should he be re-elected.

Watch the portion of the montage, as aired on CNN State of the Union on Sunday, September 29th, 2024:

https://www.mrctv.org/node/589997

JAKE TAPPER: Dark Days. Heated rhetoric from Donald Trump…

DONALD TRUMP: Your town will be transformed into a third world hellhole.

TAPPER: As he escalates false, personal attacks

TRUMP: Kamala is mentally impaired. 

TAPPER: What this might mean for November?

What even is this? There have been two assassination attempts on Trump within the last two and half months, with current threats still ongoing- including reports of multiple assassination teams deployed against the former president. Tapper tries to explain:

TAPPER: Yesterday Donald Trump offered Wisconsin voters a quote, “dark vision of the future” warning, in apocalyptic terms, about what his loss would mean and making the rather absurd claim that his opponent,Vice President Kamala Harris, is mentally disabled, after Vice President Harris gave a tough speech at the southern border in a remarkable policy and focus turnaround by the Democratic nominee.

The explanation comes after the inciteful imagery played in the rundown. And Tapper never did go back to the “dark” reference when he interviewed Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who was there as a Trump surrogate (click “expand” to view transcript):

JAKE TAPPER: Let's talk about the Trump campaign because I want to say- I want to play something Trump said yesterday in a speech ostensibly about Vice President Kamala Harris's visit to the border. Let’s play- let's take a listen.

DONALD TRUMP: Kamala is mentally impaired. 

Joe Biden became mentally impaired Kamala was born that way. 

If you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.

TAPPER: Okay. So- first of all, there are actual people out there with mental impairments and that's insulting to them. Second of all, Vice President Kamala Harris is not mentally impaired.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: No, I just think she's crazy liberal. I don't question her-

TAPPER:  But what- what do you think about that rhetoric? 

GRAHAM: I- I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country. They're crazy liberal. 400,000 people have been let loose in our country. 16,000 people convicted of being a rapist, 13,000 convicted murderers, and 400,000 people generally convicted of crimes were released on her watch. It’s not going to get better.

TAPPER: OK. So I saw that statistic. We dove into it, our fact-checker, that statistic is actually over decades. So some of those people you're talking about are people that came into the country during Trump. And second of all, some of them are in prison.. A lot of them are in prison for- not ICE prisons, but federal prisons for their- for their crimes. 

GRAHAM: I can tell you this- the man who killed Laken Riley in Georgia was released by the Biden/Harris Administration on parole because they had no capacity at the border to hold him. That's not a reason to parole people. I promise you they're meant- women have been raped and murdered, people have been hurt by illegal immigrants released in this country without detention, it is a nightmare. It is crazy. It's crazy to boycott a speech by the Prime Minister of Israel to a Joint Session of Congress thinking it won't embolden Iran. It’s crazy to withdraw from Afghanistan, hoping things will be different this time. Medicare for All. Green New Deal. Crazy stuff. 

TAPPER: Okay. 

GRAHAM: I'm not saying she's crazy. I’m saying your party…your policies are batshit crazy.

The Regime Media talk a good game with regard to “reducing the temperature” and de-escalating insightful rhetoric, but as we continue to see, these words are mostly empty.