CNN’s Brianna Keilar deployed lawyerly language to offer plausible deniability that she and her employed are engaged in a smearing of President Donald Trump as anti-Semitic during a Tuesday discussion segment.
Keilar offered her lawyerly response to protestations from Harlan Hill of “slanderous” accusations against Trump coming from her and fellow CNN colleague Angela Rye, stating that she was not “necessarily” accusing Trump of being an anti-Semite: “No, that is not what we are doing. We are talking about his language condemning anti-Semitism. That doesn’t necessarily mean we are accusing him of being anti-Semitic.”
“This is slanderous!” proclaimed Hill in defense of Trump against innuendo-laden descriptions of the president as anti-Semitic from Keilar and Rye.
CNN reported that 48 Jewish community centers in 28 states received nearly 60 bomb threats in the month of January, framing this as a function of Trump’s presidency. Its headline cast Trump as tardy in his response: “11 more bomb threats target Jewish community. Trump finally responds.”
Keilar introduced the segment with a characterization of Trump as insufficiently opposed to anti-Semitism, describing a recent statement from Trump as “the first time” he addressed the aforementioned series of anti-Semitic threats.
“Why do you think Donald Trump spoke out now, and why do you think it took him so long to do so?” asked Keilar. She later pointed to Trump’s derision of an observant Jewish reporter following a question about anti-Semitism at a press conference last week as further evidence of her innuendo-laden narrative of the president as a hater of Jews. She also described some of Trump’s conduct as “questionable” with respect to anti-Semitism.
Hill – apparently a former supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (D-VT) presidential campaign and now a supporter of Trump’s – sought to shift the segment’s innuendo-driven focus towards connections between Hillary Clinton and Islamist governments.
Rye accused Trump of being sympathetic to anti-black racism and inciting violence against “black [and] brown people:”
“We know there’s been a rise in hate incidents since this man took office We know that Donald Trump refused throughout the campaign to condemn hateful rhetoric against black people, against brown people, in fact he used terms to incite violence against these communities.”
Keilar offered no challenge to any of Rye’s accusations, instead opting to only challenge Hill. She presents herself as an objective and non-partisan news anchor.
CNN brands and markets itself as “The Most Trusted Name In News.”
H/T Alex Griswold at Mediaite
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