CNN’s morning show crew burst into laughter when one of the presenters showed the image of former President Donald Trump as an “escaped monkey from a cocaine study.” This comes as both presidents were to begin with CNN's earliest general election debate, which was moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. Jonah Goldberg generally doubts the significance of the upcoming presidential debates he shared his opinion prior to the debate during this discussion about them. He invoked the Kennedy-Nixon debate as an example of how historical data frequently demonstrates that debates prioritize style over substance. Goldberg pointed out that the debate would be important for reassuring people about the two candidates, who are surrounded by uncertainties. For Biden, it's about concerns regarding his age and suitability for the job, while for Trump, it's about the fear of enduring more chaos and uncertainty. Goldberg emphasized how important it is for the candidates to reassure the public and inspire confidence in their decisions. By making a funny comment during the discussion Shermichael Singleton helped to lighten the atmosphere.
This is how the conversation continues-
KASIE HUNT: Jonah Goldberg. And so, first of all, there’s there’s three of you sitting with us. In many ways, you represent kind of the three pieces of American political thinking. To be clear–.
(CROSSTALK, LAUGHTER)
KASIE HUNT: We have two Republicans. But as we’ve seen in the in these elections, I mean, these people keep voting for Nikki Haley. Jonah, you have, you know, expressed that you’re not supportive of Donald Trump. Shermichael, previously, worked for him.
But but, Jonah, I just kind of want to go to you on++ in that as I’m thinking about this day, and the reality that the three of you kind of represent and underscore, the historic nature of the day can be kind of hard to wrap our heads around.
But in many ways, this election is going to be different from any we have had before. The stakes are in some ways very much higher at what is what are the stakes on that stage tonight in your view?
JONAH GOLDBERG: Yeah. So look, I’m generally very much a skeptic about the importance of presidential debates, but I actually think this one matters.
I mean, historically, there’s a lot of data that show that don’t tend to matter that much. They tend to emphasize style and telegenic stuff over substance.
You know, the the one that everyone always talks about is Kennedy versus Nixon. And everyone says, well, Kennedy won because he had makeup in and Nixon looked like he woke up in a motel room–.
And, and like, it’s like, okay, you’re making my point that this things emphasized style over substance. This is about reassuring people for two candidates that people have a lot of misgivings about. Right.
For Biden, it’s not misgivings necessarily about his character. It’s misgivings about his age, his whether he’s up to the job.
And for Trump, it’s misgivings about, “Dear God, are we going to go back to four more years of the kind of chaos and him being in our headspace again? Can I handle that? Can I make peace with that, or is it going to be four more years of him tweeting like an escaped monkey from a cocaine study? And so, like.
KASIE HUNT: I need to get– this is why Shermichael is here–
(LAUGHTER)
JONAH GOLDBERG: Yes, yes. He has to be reassuring to a certain extent, to give people permission to vote against Biden and whether he can do that or not, I have no idea.
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON: I don’t want to envision that. The cocaine monkey.
PETA response-
In response to the conversion PETA, Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding comments made on CNN today by political commentator Jonah Goldberg, who said Donald Trump’s statements sound like they came from an “escaped monkey from a cocaine study”:
“It may sound bizarre that experimenters deliberately addict monkeys to cocaine, but this abuse masquerading as science is real—and unfortunately, there is no escape for these animals. Whoever wins the presidential race must recognize that experiments on animals are failing to lead to treatments for humans and should cut the National Institutes of Health’s budget for animal tests entirely and permanently.”
Further mentioning, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness.