‘Insanely Smart!’ CNN Morning Crew Gushes At Trump McDonalds Stunt ‘Twisting Knife’ Over Baseless Kamala Harris Smear

CNN’s morning crew gushed at former President Donald Trump’s McDonald’s photo op — even noting it was designed to “twist the knife” over a “baseless” smear against Vice President Kamala Harris .

In August, Harris released a campaign ad that noted she worked at the ubiquitous fast-food chain while she was in college. The ad sparked attacks from critics claiming — without evidence — that she never worked there, and even that McDonald’s confirmed this (they did not ).

The attack became part of Trump’s stump, including a promise to work the fry station that came to fruition over the weekend — sort of. At a Pennsylvania McDonald’s franchise that was closed for business to accommodate Trump’s stunt, the ex-President donned an apron and enacted a brief stint in the restaurant.

On Monday morning’s CNN This Morning , anchor Kasie Hunt introduced the story by noting that Trump’s attack was “baseless” but also calling the issue a “dispute.”

Her panel gushed over the stunt, with even Democratic analyst Meghan Hays calling it “humanizing”:

KASIE HUNT: Our panel has returned. So I have to say, when I first saw that image of Trump kind of hanging out the drive thru window. A part of me thought, Wow, is that real?

I never thought he would do something like that. The Trump that we saw in 1999, in that old ad, is the one that was much more familiar to me.

Like, Look, we’re going to run this town, right? Like someone who owns a McDonald’s, not someone who works in one.

I mean, clearly they have a strategy to try to appeal to working class voters, try to twist the knife on Harris. But I still found these images to be jarring.

KRISTIN SOLTIS-ANDERSON: Well, part of what you what is so striking about them is that he’s not trying to not be Donald Trump.

Like some politicians go when they try to dress up as somebody they’re not. He’s still got the red tie. He’s still got, he’s still so clearly himself. And I think this was an unbelievably smart move!

Because one thing that has differentiated Donald Trump from other really wealthy politicians is that he has never been seen as the aloof, the billionaire who would never deign to hang out with the commoners.

Like he has always sort of portrayed himself as I’m the rich guy who doesn’t really like the other rich guys. I’m one of you, and this is part of this. I think this was insanely smart!

ALEX THOMPSON: Well, to that point, it is part of a larger effort on the Trump campaign to sort of soften Donald Trump’s image. It’s why you’ve seen his grandkids sort of being appearing at the rally and also spoke at the RNC. There’s a a larger effort going on by the Trump campaign to appeal to some of those suburban women that he’s kind of losing.

MEGHAN HAYS: The most humanizing moment in that clip was when he threw this all over his shoulder. It was like such a normal reaction that anyone who was like, like we all do that when you’re cooking or whatever. And so that was the most like normalizing and humanizing moment, I think, in this clip.

But to your point, like he still has a shirt on his tie on, like most politicians would have showed up in like a collared shirt or something that said McDonald’s and try to like more fit in.

I did find it striking that the whole restaurant was shut down and it was just sort of like a staged event. But I do think it is definitely like poking at the vice president.

Watch above via CNN This Morning .