On Friday, CNN’s Anderson Cooper ran a segment on “Anderson Cooper 360” featuring far-left activists David Hogg and Cameron Kasky in which both made a series of misleading statements using divisive rhetoric while discussing the speech that President Donald Trump gave in Dallas at the NRA’s Annual Leadership Forum.
Kasky first talked about how he thought Trump was going in the right direction after the Parkland shooting when he called for tougher gun laws, but then noted how Trump seemed to change his tune after he had a meeting with NRA leaders.
“So as to whether or not the NRA meeting changed his views, that’s kind of up to speculation, but I will tell you that is hopefully the first Russian-funded group he has met with,” Kasky said.
Hogg stated that he thought Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and the NRA were “worried because of the support we’ve been getting and the support we’ll have in mid-terms,” adding that anyone who supports the NRA doesn’t “stand with kids.”
“Yet, in one of the recent spending bills that they had, they cut mental health spending for schools by over $25 million,” Hogg continued. “That doesn’t sound like improving the mental health system for schools to me.”
Kasky and Hogg, who are both known for making false statements (examples can be found here, here, here, and here), made multiple false, misleading, and ridiculous statements during their interview with Cooper on CNN.
1. To suggest the NRA is a “Russian-funded group” is extremely misleading. The NRA did receive approximately $2,512 from people with Russian addresses since 2015. However, the NRA also brings in approximately $400 million per year in revenue, meaning that only $2,512 in donations have come from Russian addresses in the same time span that the NRA has brought in over $800 million — which is only 0.00031% — hardly enough to call the NRA a “Russian-funded group.”
2. Hogg’s claim that Trump, Pence, and the NRA are worried because of the support he’s been getting and will “have in mid-terms” doesn’t appear to be backed by recent numbers:
- Support for gun control measures is declining.
- A new poll from left-leaning Reuters that was released this week showed that Democrats have lost a significant percentage of millennials over the last two years and Republicans are now tied with the Democrats for support among millennials.
- A new poll from the left-leaning Morning Consult showed that “Democrats are in serious trouble in Senate races across the country,” as The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro noted. The poll revealed that Republicans could gain up to nine seats in the Senate.
- In an analysis this week, CNN’s Harry Enten wrote that “the House is not a lost cause for Republicans at this time.” Entren cautioned: “Anyone categorizing the House as ‘all but’ certain to be won by Democrats in 2018 is repeating the same mistake of 2016, when polls showed a Hillary Clinton win as more likely than not, but far from inevitable.”
- The NRA is scared? The gun rights organization just broke a 15-year fundraising record.
3. Hogg’s statement that Trump “cut mental health spending for schools by over $25 million” is not remotely true.
As far-left Vox notes: “The omnibus [that was signed into law] also included more funding for school-based mental health programs …”
The American Psychiatric Association released a statement on the day the omnibus bill was signed into law, specifically saying that they “praised” it, noting that in total it increases funding for mental health by billions of dollars.
WATCH:
The Daily Wire reached out to CNN to get answers as to why the network has allowed these far-left activists to make false statements on TV during multiple segments without correcting them or even attempting to fact check them. CNN did not respond.