CNN's Brianna Keilar calls out Fox News' lies about “spontaneous” Trump rally
Keilar: “Fox is becoming its own worst nightmare, completely predictable: Worship Trump, blame Democrats, spotlight fear. Rinse, lather, repeat.”
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From the February 16, 2021, edition of CNN Newsroom with Brianna Keilar
BRIANNA KEILAR (ANCHOR): Fox is becoming its own worst nightmare, completely predictable: Worship Trump, blame Democrats, spotlight fear. Rinse, lather, repeat. And despite their lies and conspiracy theories being documented and deconstructed on a daily basis, they make like the Brady Bunch kids and keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on all through the night.
(VIDEO BEGINS)
SEAN HANNITY (FOX NEWS HOST): A few hours ago, spontaneously, thousands of people in Palm Beach, lined up in support of the former president as his motorcade traveled through Florida. I have a question Mitch McConnell, John Thune, how come you never had this kind of enthusiasm at any of your events?
(VIDEO ENDS)
KEILAR: Lie. That rally, this one here, it wasn't spontaneous. There's an organized police presence that was ready for the event. Far-right media had been promoting it for the past week. Reporter Olivia Nuzzi even tweeted out evidence before Hannity's show started. It reads like a normal e-vite. There's a time, there's a place, quote, “southeast corner of Parker Avenue and Southern Boulevard." There's a day, there's a reason, there's even directions for what to bring: flags, signs and your love for, quote, “the greatest president of all time." But Sean Hannity is never one to let facts get in the way of things.
(VIDEO BEGINS)
HANNITY: Looking at dad coming back from golf, did you see? Thousands of people out of nowhere. Nobody organized it that I could see, certainly nobody associated with your father that I know of, do you?
DONALD TRUMP JR.: No, this is totally organic, and again it just shows that the American people are with Donald Trump.
(VIDEO ENDS)
KEILAR: And when you go to bed with lies, you wake up with them on the channel, too.
(VIDEO BEGINS)
AINSLEY EARHARDT (FOX & FRIENDS CO-HOST): Yesterday, Donald Trump, on President's Day, was driving into West Palm, and there were crowds of people -- I don't know if you've seen the video -- if you haven't here it is. He's in the car, they stop for a moment, he's waving, doing a thumbs up to the crowd. But look at all of the supporters.
PETE HEGSETH (FOX & FRIENDS WEEKEND CO-HOST): And that was not a planned event, that was spontaneous --
EARHARDT: Correct --
HEGSETH: -- on President's Day for Donald Trump.
(VIDEO ENDS)
BRIANNA KEILAR: These lies aren't harmless. They're part of the bigger lie about what is true and what isn't. They're dividing a nation. They're dividing families. We just shared a letter from the family of Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who voted to convict Donald Trump in the second impeachment trial. He looked at the facts, and he voted his conscience. And his family told him that he was a disappointment to them and to God. Why? Because they said, quote, “you should be very proud that you have lost the respect of Lou Dobbs, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Greg Kelly, and most important in our book, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh and us. It is now most embarrassing to us that we are related to you.
So just to run through that IMDB-worthy cast of characters: Lou Dobbs is now off the air, booted by Fox after he was named in a lawsuit for spreading conspiracy theories about voting machines. Tucker Carlson has mocked the Capitol attack, denying that it was domestic terrorism, denying any racism was involved even though their verifiably was -- and we should point out Fox successfully defended Carlson in a slander lawsuit by saying that viewers shouldn't believe what he says. That is right, his own network said he's full of it. Then there's Laura Ingraham, she recently praised and hosted Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to push anti-vaccination conspiracy theories. And Greg Kelly, Mark Levin, and Rush Limbaugh all helped fan the flames of the big lie that the election was stolen from Trump, when it was not. Those are the people who families like Adam Kinzinger's are listening to. And there are so many American families listening to them. These television personalities pushing lies and conspiracy theories disguised as patriotism and traditional American values, when really they're just homewreckers who wouldn't offer up the truth if it landed in their snake oil.