During the controversy surrounding Israel's decision to bar Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar into their country, most of the media focus was on President Trump and his tweets on the subject. The media condemned him for violating the tradition that stated that politics stops at the water's edge. The notion that politics stop's at the water's edge has never been as sacred as the media hyped it up to be and Monday's edition of CNN Newsroom proved just that when they sent Clarissa Ward to Iran for no other purpose than to find some "every day Iranians" who would tell them what they wanted to hear.

After host Brooke Baldwin and Ward summarized a dispute that Iran has been having with Britain over a seized tanker in Gibraltar, Baldwin asked what the Iranian people think of the situation, "You mention some of those conversations you were having with just every day Iranians. What more are they saying?"

Ward tried to paint a picture of a country of deep political divisions, that was nevertheless unified in their hatred of Trump:

We were in Tehran, we were in the city of Qom, which is a very conservative city, traditionally a bastion of support for the Supreme Leader, a lot of hard-liners there, but no matter who you are talking to on whatever side of the political divide they may be, and there are a lot of Iranians by the way who are extremely critical of the Iranian government, there seems to be a kind of united front at the moment in feeling imbittered and betrayed.

Ward then introduced a clip of a man named Alireza Bandar who was portrayed as just one of many ordinary Iranians Ward interviewed for this assignment. After calling the seizure of a British tanker "tit for tat" and repeating that he does not want war, but is prepared for one, Ward asked Bandar, "Do you have a message for President Trump?." Bandar replied with a statement that could have been a part of any CNN or "non-partisan" fact-checker job application:

Mr. Donald Trump, you know, you're an unpredictable person. You are a liar. You have lied more than 2,000 lies during your, you know, short time of presidency. So you are dangerous. Of course, you're dangerous. And we don't believe -- we don't trust you.

Ward did not specify what she mean by "extremely critical of the Iranian government," because the ones who are critical of the regime and are therefore likely to support Trump's policies are probably either dead or rotting away in a prison for thought crimes. But CNN knows no limits when it comes to getting a quick soundbite to use against Trump. So, much for politics stopping at the water's edge.

Here is a transcript for the August 19 show: