'Why is this Harris’ problem?' Ex-GOPer blasts conservative’s refusal to condemn Trump 'garbage'

A CNN panel erupted on Monday night when staunch conservative and former US Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) refused to condemn the racist remarks comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made during the ex-president's Madison Square Garden rally Sunday.

Pointing out that Hinchcliffe described Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage," CNN host Kaitlan Collins said, "The irony of it was that Harris was visiting a Puerto Rican restaurant, basically the same time period."

Former Republican S.E. Cupp replied, "As someone who's been a long time movement conservative, since I was 18, 19 — and did not follow Trump down the dark path of fascism and bigotry — this is heartbreaking, because this isn't just Trump, this is the Republican party. This is my former party. These are people he picked to be up on that stage eight days before the election. It's Trump, it's his running mate. It's the people he's installed around him. It's the Republicans that have come up after him and won their elections with his imprimatur. This is the Republican party this is so beneath anything we should be doing in our political discourse. And it's not happening on the ground, it's not happening in the basement. It's happening at the presidential level. The guy who is the nominee for the Republican party has designed this event eight days before the election because this is who he is."

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Collins then asked Zeldin for his thoughts.

"Just to give you another perspective of what somebody like me is seeing when Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton are comparing President Trump to Hitler, and saying this is a Nazi rally, and comparing it to some Nazi rally from the 1930s," the MAGA ally began. "And you have an event where if you have Holocaust survivors in the arena, you have yarmulkes, multiple Jews speaking on stage. And I'll tell you that a close to closing message that I see is President Trump talking about 'Kamala broke it. I'll fix it.' And Kamala harris, as we saw with the CNN town hall last week, the panel before she started was really begging her to talk about the economy and the border, and she was talking about Hitler and January 6."

Former Trump communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, chimed in, saying, "Kamala Harris has referred to remarks that reportedly came from John Kelly — a four-star general, and Donald Trump's former chief of staff — when he referred to him praising Hitler. JD Vance compared Donald Trump to Hitler before he did his 180. Kamala Harris is not calling him Hitler. I think that's a very important perspective."

Zeldin replied, "Respectfully, I would say that, today, for example, when Kamala Harris was answering questions outside air force two, she was asked a question about the rally, talking about going down this line of Nazi rally, Hitler, fascism, and she doesn't push back on it at all."

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Cupp then asked, "But why is this Kamala Harris' problem? This is not Kamala Harris' problem. This is the Republican party's problem. You're a good conservative, Lee, I know you. Can't you say that that was garbage?

Zeldin then asked Cupp, "Would you say that was a Nazi rally?"

"I didn't say that," the former Republican shot back.

"No. You didn't. But the problem is that Hillary Clinton did," Zeldin said.

"We're not talking abut Hillary Clinton," Cupp shot back. "I'm asking you, can't you just say that was garbage?"

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"Kamala Harris went with that narrative today," Zeldin replied.

"You won't say it,' Cupp concluded.

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