CNN anchor Brianna Keilar blasts Fox News and the White House for trying to smear her
Brianna Keilar highlights deceptive edit of her remarks by Tucker Carlson and how the White House amplified the same lie
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From the September 25, 2020, edition of CNN Newsroom
BRIANNA KEILAR (ANCHOR): The [Kentucky] attorney general's purposeful use of that Trump talking point, while his city was on edge, is what I highlighted on Wednesday.
(BEGIN CLIP)
AREVA MARTIN (CNN LEGAL ANALYST): To have him associated with that convention, and Donald Trump's message about mobs and law and order and riots, and all the pejorative terms that he's attached to people who are peacefully protests — I just think it left something to be desired, and probably undermined his credibility to a certain extent.
KEILAR: And to that point, I wonder what both of you think of that. I question the judgment of the Kentucky attorney general saying, quote, “mob justice is not justice.” He said, “it becomes revenge.” And you know, that's not being said in a vacuum, Laura, because that word, “the mob,” and the president having said that “if Joe Biden wins, the mob wins,” that's what he says. We know this is very politically loaded language, it's already been seized by people on both sides of this debate about what we are seeing in this fight for criminal justice reform in the country. I wonder what you thought about him choosing those words, when clearly this was something he — he chose his words carefully.
(END CLIP)
KEILAR: Now that night, Tucker Carlson chummed the waters of Fox News with an edited-down version of that moment.
(BEGIN CLIP)
TUCKER CARLSON (FOX NEWS HOST): CNN knows that mob justice isn't just worth having — in fact, it's the substance of the Democratic platform in 2020 — so they attacked him for saying it. Watch this.
KEILAR: I question the judgment of the Kentucky attorney general saying, quote, “mob justice is not justice.” He said, “it becomes revenge.” And you know, that's not being said in a vacuum, Laura, because that word, “the mob,” and the president having said that “if Joe Biden wins, the mob wins,” that's what he says. We know this is very politically loaded language —
CARLSON: Look at yourself in the mirror, CNN anchor. What are you doing? You know what you're doing, you're encouraging violence.
(END CLIP)
KEILAR: Tucker Carlson, whose own company argues that his show is so full of it that viewers shouldn't be expected to believe what he tells them. That's right. Fox News just successfully argued in a defamation lawsuit brought against the network and Carlson by Karen McDougal, who was paid $150,000 by National Enquirer's parent company for the rights to her story — which effectively silenced her from talking about the alleged affair with Donald Trump, an affair that the White House has denied in a statement to The New Yorker.
Now, according to the judge who dismissed McDougal's claim, quote, “Fox persuasively argues … that given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer ‘arrives with an appropriate amount of skepticism’ about the statements he makes.”
Any reasonable viewer. But not Kayleigh McEnany. The press secretary left no doubt that Fox News primetime shows are just a propaganda arm for this administration.
(BEGIN CLIP)
KAYLEIGH MCENANY (WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY): The [Kentucky] attorney general Daniel Cameron said, “If we simply act on emotion or outrage, there is no justice. Mob justice is not justice. Justice sought by violence is not justice. It just becomes revenge.”
And you contrast his message with that of CNN's Brianna Keilar, who said, “I question the judgment of the Kentucky attorney general saying that mob justice is not justice. We know that this is very loaded language.” That's an appalling statement from Brianna Keilar at CNN, and what is outrageous about this take is that mob justice is not justice. Hours later, after this comment was made on CNN, two police officers were shot.
(END CLIP)
KEILAR: At no time did I suggest that violence is justice — and I can't believe I even have to explain that. But the alternative is letting someone like Kayleigh McEnany misquote and manipulate what you say — McEnany, who repeatedly lies to the American people.