Rice University professor and liberal historian Douglas Brinkley praised Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) on Sunday for bravely calling into question President Donald Trump’s stability.
“Senator Corker is a real leader among Republicans,” Brinkley said on CNN’s Reliable Sources. “It was very brave of him to step out and talk about the fact … that we have an incompetent president.”
Last week, Corker questioned Trump’s stability, saying Trump has not yet been able to “demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful.”
CNN’s show spent a considerable amount of time discussing Trump’s mental health, with host Brian Stelter dramatically leading off the show by asking how journalists should cover Trump’s supposedly declining mental state.
Stelter said: “Questions that feel out of bounds, off limits, too hot for TV. Questions like these: Is the president of the United States a racist? Is he suffering from some kind of illness? Is he fit for office? And if he’s unfit, then what?”
“This brings me back to the questions that are tough to ask out loud on national television,” the host continued. “Is the president of the United States suffering from some sort of illness? Is he racist? Is he fit to be commander-in-chief? And one more, is it time for objective journalists, I don’t mean opinion folks I mean down the middle journalists to address these questions head on and how do they do it?”
Panelist Carl Bernstein, who has been leading the charge on this issue, said reporters needed to get more Republicans in Congress and top intelligence officials “on background” and perhaps “off the record” to smear Trump and his “stability and fitness to be president of the United States.”
Brinkley, the liberal historian, added that Trump is a “neon billboard” for “overt narcissism” and “malignant self-love.”
He further continued to denigrate Trump as a “sick man in the White House.”