'Trump is not invited': CNN host shuts down MAGA spin on Obama library bash

CNN's Audie Cornish schooled a former Donald Trump staffer who pooh-poohed the opening of Barack Obama's presidential library.The 64-year-old former president will be joined at his library's grand opening Thursday by George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and the event will include performances by legendary artists like Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Eddie Vedder, Jennifer Hudson and The Roots, and Cornish couldn't help but compare that to President Donald Trump's lackluster Freedom 250 lineup.It's very Obama era in terms of all the celebrities being there, and we made a list of, like, who's going to be, who's going to be at this Obama event and their global record sales, and then what's going on with the Trump-backed Freedom 250, which pretty much kicked off a few weeks ago in terms of who was leaving it, Cornish said. In the end, it's Lee Greenwood, a president, the president's favorite, and a handful of other artists. Is this a reminder of, like, kind of where Hollywood's heart lies or the complication that Trump has his relationship with pop culture?Mike Dubke, a former communications director in Trump's first term, seemed caught off guard by the question.Is this to me? he said. I don't know that it's a fair comparison.Cornish disagreed, saying they were both massive events taking place within weeks of one another.I love presidential libraries, Dubke filibustered. I think they are, and especially to the point that they tell the story of the president in their own words. So I've been to a few. I've been to Bill Clinton's down in Little Rock, I've been to Ronald Reagan's out in California. I think it's incredibly interesting to walk through each of these libraries, and I'm in Chicago, I will probably go to Obama's presidential library because I think they're fantastic things.Trump is not invited, Cornish prodded, just so we're clear.No, that's fine, but I don't – I will take a little issue on this pop culture thing because I don't know that comparing America's 250 and all the politics that are surrounding this with what should be a celebration for Obama, Dunke said. I'm not sure I'm there. We should be celebrating America's. 250 but look, this is this is a celebration for Obama and the folks that really enjoyed his presidency, and, you know, good on them for having a go.Cornish then offered to provide some historical context to Obama's event in comparison to Trump's partisan takeover of the celebration of the United States' semiquincentennial.In an era where [diversity, equity and inclusion] has been completely, not just DEI, when Black American history has been carved out of the halls of the federal government with a with like a butcher knife, them doing this library on Juneteenth week is on purpose and is significant because maybe for Black Americans, that is a historic moment that this nation will no longer celebrate under the Trump administration, Cornish said. They are not interested in talking about the history of slavery. So it feels like the Obamas are doing something very purposeful. They're creating an alternative historical celebration for people who feel like part of their history is forgotten.