CNN’s John Berman Confronts NC GOP Chair For ‘Cancelling’ Richard Burr Over Vote to Impeach
CNN’s John Berman pressed the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party for their “cancel culture” decision to censure their own senator, Richard Burr (R), for pronouncing Donald Trump guilty of inciting insurrection.
Even though the Senate, at the conclusion of last week’s impeachment trial, fell short of the 67 votes required to convict the former president, the final vote was the most bipartisan in U.S. history, and Burr was among seven Republican senators who broke party lines to side with Democrats. The North Carolina Republican Party, on Monday, voted unanimously to condemn Burr for breaking ranks and chairman Michael Whatley confirmed the resolution against him.
When Whatley appeared Tuesday on CNN, Berman interrogated him on whether he thinks Trump bears any responsibility for his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Berman also confronted Whatley with the statements of Republican Senators Thom Tillis (NC) and Mitch McConnell (KY) — both of whom deemed Trump responsible for the insurrection despite voting for acquittal on procedural grounds.
Whatley denied that the censure was a “statement” against Burr, prompting Berman to call out what he deemed to be a position of hypocrisy.
“We hear a lot from people in the Republican Party about ‘cancel culture,'” Berman said. “You are canceling Richard Burr for his vote, which he says was a vote of conscience.”
Whatley argued that actual cancel culture is conservatives losing their job and getting kicked off of social media for their viewpoints. Berman continued to make the point, however, that “you’re canceling him because of that vote.”
“We’re not canceling anything. We’re saying that we disagree with one particular vote,” Whatley countered.
Watch above, via CNN.
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