Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik, in talking about the two big TV star controversies of the week, said it’s hard to ignore the impact President Trump‘s rhetoric has had on American culture.

CNN’s Brian Stelter and the Reliable Sources panel tackled the comments made by Roseanne Barr and Samantha Bee, including a debate on whether the comments they made were equivalent in the first place.

Zurawik brought up an example of a Trump tweet he was particularly stunned by––giving his personal endorsement to Tomi Lahren––before saying, “The President and the White House can still drive our rhetoric, the level that we have our national conversation at. It can still drive visual imagery in this country.”

And then he circled back to Barr and Bee:

“You can’t blame the White House for something as ugly and horrid as Roseanne did, but you can see how Trump’s rhetoric fed her and made her feel justified in her racism. And you can also see, in a way, how it drives someone like Samantha Bee––and I’m not excusing her in any way and I’m not blaming him for this, you know––but you can see how it drives people to those extremes.”

“To sink lower?” Stelter asked.

“That’s the mistake,” Zurawik responded.

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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