It may be time to haul President Trump before the International Criminal Court, said the White House reporter whose main talent has been her ability to make herself the story.
Trump’s alleged crime? He started a “race war” in the United States.
“Let’s call a thing a thing,” said CNN contributor and American Urban Radio Networks bureau chief April Ryan. “This president, Donald John Trump, has instigated a race war in America. Portland, Oregon, is ground zero. This president, Donald John Trump, has basically stoked the flames for racist extremists, neo-Nazis, and the ‘alt-right.’”
She added, “The mayor of Portland is absolutely right. And there are those who are calling for help from this president and the stoking of a race war. There is a race war in America right now because of this president. People are calling me, asking if there indeed is a way to get the international crimes court to come in to deal with this.”
Claiming that “people” are calling her to tell her about a ridiculous thing that will never happen is, ironically enough, some perfectly Trumpian behavior.
“I’ve talked to some people who are in intelligence, and they’re saying he has done heinous things, but they have to see. We don’t know for sure,” Ryan continued. “But people are now afraid of this president because he has stoked the racial flames. And let’s call the thing a thing: He has now begun a race war in America in 2020.”
Her mostly indecipherable monologue contains so many wacky ideas that it is hard to know where to start. It is also as boring as it is predictable.
Ryan’s schtick these past several years has been to make news rather than break news. There are no big revealing Trump-era scoops bearing her byline. She does not inspire newsworthy answers from government officials. Instead, she throws bombs and fights with White House staffers and sometimes other reporters. It is her willingness to say stupid things on camera is what makes Ryan popular with political, media, and anti-Trump “resistance” groups.
First, there is what Ryan says on CNN’s airwaves. The “police and armed forces” will have “to pull Donald Trump out of the White House” if Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the presidency, she claimed on Aug. 2. In 2018, Ryan said the president “cannot be this dictator that he’s trying to be at this moment.”
Then, there is how Ryan has comported herself as a member of the White House press corps.
“With all of this turmoil, particularly this last week, has the president at any time thought about stepping down, before or now?” Ryan asked at a White House press briefing in 2018.
She asked that same year whether “payoffs, hush money, Russia trolls, Facebook, WikiLeaks, DNC hack, Comey email investigations, [and] allegations of collusion” gave support to those “who offer questions about the president’s legitimacy.”
“Does this president believe slavery was wrong?” Ryan asked in 2017.
These questions do not shine light on those in power. They are veiled ad hominem attacks that chiefly draw attention to the person asking them.
Ryan also accused former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2017 of faking a photograph of a homemade pecan pie. So, there is that.
In each instance, Ryan’s idiotic public behavior provided her with a subsequent opportunity to muse about her thoughts and feelings. This is not reporting. This is just seeking attention. The problem with this gimmick is that it requires a constant descent into the deranged. Ryan’s recent remarks about Trump and the International Criminal Court make that evident.
