In case the country was not feeling emotional enough this inauguration morning, CNN goosed its pre-inauguration coverage with a brutal split screen of President-elect Trump and Hillary Clinton that emphasized just how very much one will be president and the other will not. You know, in case you forgot!
As President Obama and Trump left the White House and made their way to the limousine taking them to the Capitol, CNN decided it would be a good time to cue up a feed of Hillary and Bill Clinton making their way through Capitol Hill. The cameras followed the limo on one side of the screen and the stoic Clintons on the other for a few silent minutes, stoking the drama, until Wolf Blitzer broke in to solemnly congratulate the CNN production team for creating such a brazenly manipulative juxtaposition. “What a remarkable split screen moment we just saw,” Blitzer remarked, as if split screens are as random and inevitable as weather. Andrea Mitchell chimed in, “That moment, it gave me the chills, not for any reason other than as just a reminder, nobody ever knows what their fate is going to be. To literally see Donald Trump walk out the door … to go to his inauguration … and to see Hillary Clinton walking with her husband who was president, knowing she will never be, at the very same time, wow.” John King chirped up, “The two men who denied her the presidency in one car.”
