CNN runs report calling Trump supporters who label US a 'republic' a threat to democracy

CNN showcased a report that featured supporters of former President Donald Trump saying the United States is a constitutional republic and other interviewees saying those comments are a threat to democracy.

"President Biden touts his re-election campaign as a fight to preserve democracy, but if you ask some Trump supporters, the former president is not a threat to democracy because the United States is not a democracy," anchor Omar Jimenez said for the introduction.

The report features reporter Donie O'Sullivan interviewing Trump supporters who point out the United States is not purely a democracy and it is the Democrats who are a threat to the rule of law with their actions to imprison the former president.

"I've heard a lot of conspiracy theories. I hear a lot of things out on the road, but to hear Americans, people who would describe themselves as patriots, say that America is not a democracy, that stopped me in my tracks," O'Sullivan told journalist Anne Applebaum.

'But calling it a democracy ignores important, constitutional limitations.'

"You are hearing people say 'America is not a democracy' because there are people around Trump who want them to be saying, who have been planting that narrative," Applebaum replied.

"If they can convince people that we don't have a democracy then it's okay Trump is attacking democracy because it doesn't really matter," she added.

Applebaum then admits the U.S. isn't a pure form of democracy because the Founding Fathers set up a form of government that has representatives and checks and balances.

"This is not actually a debate about government, about democracy. It’s an attack on democracy," O'Sullivan told Jimenez at the end of the report.

"Yeah, we’re a constitutional republic. Sure, it’s a democratic form of government. But calling it a 'democracy' ignores important, constitutional limitations—put in place by our founders—designed to keep democratic impulses in check. That’s the whole point of the Constitution," Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said in response to the report.

"How does CNN explain the Battle hymn of The REPUBLIC? Or the line: 'And to the REPUBLIC which it stands' in our pledge. Democracy is only a PART of the Republic. We have one man, one vote (democracy) to elect our REPRESENTATIVES, They Represent us to enact laws through the CONSTITUTION which they all swear to PROTECT AND DEFEND. Why does the left seem to only care about ‘democracy’. Yes, it is important, but with out the rest of it, democracy becomes mob rule," Glenn Beck noted.