CNN invites a white nationalist on air to talk about Trump's tweets

In an attempt to show viewers that white nationalists believe President Donald Trump is on their side, CNN decided to give one of them some air time to express how he felt about the president's recent tweets.

Yes, instead of criticizing Trump based simply on the content of his remarks, CNN decided it was necessary to explicitly highlight racist people and organizations in a segment while trying to tie them to Trump.

White nationalist Richard Spencer, however, may not have given them exactly what they were looking for. Spencer said Trump actually wasn't racist enough to be considered one of the white nationalist crowd.

"Many white nationalists will eat up this red meat that Donald Trump is throwing out there," Spencer said. "I am not one of them. I recognize the con game that is going on.

"He gives us nothing, outside of racist tweets," Spencer continued. "And by racist tweets, I mean tweets that are meaningless and cheap, and express the kind of sentiments you might hear from your drunk uncle while he's watching [Sean] Hannity."

Joan Donovan, director of the Technology and Social Change Project at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center, called CNN's segment a mistake.

"Spencer will turn this into a new wave of attention within his own media ecosystem, where CNN has now just legitimated a litany of white supremacists, many of who were relegated to online obscurity," Donovan told The Daily Beast.

The segment by CNN was a response to a recent controversy involving Trump and progressive Democrats who have been vocally critical of him.

"So interesting to see "Progressive" Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run," Trump tweeted. "Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can't leave fast enough. I'm sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!"

The president has stood by the sentiments in the tweets, while maintaining that they are not racist.

(H/T The Daily Beast)