On the heels of releasing a sting video in which a CNN producer admits that the Trump-Russia collusion story is “mostly bullsh*t,” James O’Keefe and Project Veritas have released part 2 of their “American Pravda: CNN” series. In the newest installment, CNN analyst Van Jones appears to dismiss the whole “Russia thing” as a “nothing burger.”
On Monday night, Project Veritas released part 1 of it’s exposé on CNN’s left-wing political bias, which featured CNN medical producer John Bonifield admitting that the Russia story — which his network has been obsessing over like the rest of the left-leaning establishment media — is “mostly bullsh*t right now.”
“I mean, it’s mostly bullsh*t right now,” said Bonifield. “Like, we don’t have any giant proof.”
On Wednesday, O’Keefe released a second video that stars CNN analyst Van Jones, who tells an undercover reporter that “the Russia thing is just a big nothing burger.” WATCH:
As O’Keefe notes, the first “American Pravda: CNN” video went viral, getting picked up by Drudge and making its way all the way to the White House, with Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders referencing it during the White House press briefing on Tuesday (see transcript below).
CNN has since responded to Bonifield’s statement by essentially shrugging it off, saying they support his ability to have his own opinion and underscoring that he is just a “medical producer” (he’s the supervising producer of CNN Health), and thus not directly connected to the network’s Russia coverage:
“CNN stands by our medical producer John Bonifield,” said CNN in a statement Tuesday. “Diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong, we welcome it and embrace it.”
But as CNN tries to put on a good face for the public, there is reportedly massive turmoil behind the scenes — with CNN President Jeff Zucker trying to keep morale up as staffers fume over having “lost the moral high ground” with the retracted “fake news” Russia story. Salt in the wound for CNN is President Trump’s predictably merciless mockery online.
Below is an excerpt of Huckabee Sanders’ statement about CNN and the pattern of biased reporting that sent the media into hysterics on Tuesday (reference to O’Keefe’s video bolded):
I don’t know that the response isn’t good enough for the president. I think it’s the constant barrage of fake news directed at this president that has garnered a lot of his frustration. … There are multiple other instances where that outlet that you referenced has been repeatedly wrong and had to point that out or be corrected. There’s a video circulating now … I would encourage everybody in this room and frankly, everybody across the country, to take a look at it. I think if it’s accurate. I think it’s a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism. I think we have gone to a place where if the media can’t be trusted to report the news, then that’s a dangerous place for America. And I think if that is the place that certain outlets are going, particularly for the purpose of spiking ratings, and if that’s coming directly from the top, I think that’s even more scary, and certainly more disgraceful. And I hope that’s not the direction we’re headed. I hope that outlets that have continued to use either unnamed sources, sometimes stories with no sources at all … We’ve been going on this Russia-Trump hoax for the better part of a year now, with no evidence of anything. Things like the success at the VA barely get covered, they may get covered for an hour at a time, but this story gets covered day in and day out. … They deserve something better from our news media.