White House Deputy Assistant Sebastian Gorka got into a heated spat with CNN anchor Brianna Keilar on Sunday&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; telling her that he did not trust her network to provide accurate information.
The two were discussing the tragic school shooting that took place at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis several days prior, and Keilar accused him of &#8220;missing the bigger picture&#8221; when he focused on the fact that the shooter was a trans-identifying man.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“We can&#8217;t stick with your facts because they&#8217;re not accurate.”<a href="https://twitter.com/brikeilarcnn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@brikeilarcnn</a> spars with <a href="https://twitter.com/SebGorka?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SebGorka</a> over the Trump administration’s false claims about the prevalence of mass shootings committed by transgender people. <a href="https://t.co/di0OjEA9hL">pic.twitter.com/di0OjEA9hL</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/1962144962528624898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You know, 96% of attackers — when you’re looking at the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center, looking at 172 mass attacks in the US between 2016 and 2020 — 96% were non-trans men. So I know you’re focusing on this shooter being trans,&#8221; Keilar said. &#8220;The shooter was trans — and that is certainly of note. But are you missing the bigger picture here when you zero in on that instead of more broadly these school shooters as an epidemic and you perhaps miss the through line that connects them all?&#8221;
Gorka pushed back, arguing that the data set Keilar was pulling from included gang violence and other shootings that did not appear to be ideologically motivated at all.
&#8220;Well, no, because your facts obfuscate two things. You are using data based upon the predominant gun violence – which is gang-on-gang violence with zero ideological content. If you remove all of that, the gang violence on the streets of Chicago, LA, Detroit, then you come down to a much smaller data set,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So it’s like those who say, you know, gun violence in America causes so many deaths, and then fail to note that the majority of the stats they are using refer to also suicides by gun — which, of course, is not what we are talking about here today. So let’s concentrate on mass shootings at schools — specifically Christian or Catholic schools. Then the data set is wholly different.&#8221;
&#8220;So don’t conflate different data sets just to make a political point. There was an ideological content to this attack. That’s what terrorism is. It’s not because somebody didn’t get the drug deal they wanted. It is an ideological message,&#8221; he continued.
Keilar narrowed her data down to just school shootings and said that by her count, only three of the last 32 school shooters had identified as trans — but Gorka was not convinced.
&#8220;Yeah, forgive me if I don’t go with CNN stats, OK? CNN has proven itself to be wholly inaccurate in all kinds of things for the last 10 years — perpetrators of the Russia hoax, and that we didn’t have an open border. So please forgive me if I didn’t take your stats for granted,&#8221; he shot back.
Keilar pushed again: &#8220;It’s simple math.&#8221;
&#8220;No, it’s not, it’s distortions! You are distorting the facts!&#8221; he protested. &#8220;Let me be clear. In just a couple of years, we have seen seven mass shootings involving people of transgender nature, or who are confused in their gender, seven in just the last couple of years! …I’m going to stick with the facts and not CNN’s pseudo facts.&#8221;
Keilar contested that as well, claiming that of the seven Gorka mentioned, at least one had &#8220;used anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.&#8221;
Gorka went on to say that he was most concerned with how often school shooters are &#8220;known&#8221; to law enforcement and whether or not potential red flags and warning signs are being ignored.

Hassett Says Trade Deals Could Happen This Week, Praises India

Seb Gorka Squares Off With CNN Anchor Over School Shooter’s Trans Identity

Seb Gorka Squares Off With CNN Anchor Over School Shooter's Trans Identity

Brianna Keilar

Media

Politics

School Shooting

Transgender

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) got into a heated debate with CNN&#8217;s Brianna Keilar on Wednesday over Governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tim-walz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tim Walz</a> (D-MN) and his repeated efforts to embellish or even outright lie about his time serving in the Army National Guard.
Walz is scheduled to make a speech at the Democratic National Convention officially accepting the party&#8217;s nomination for the vice presidency, and Waltz was one of a number of Republicans who signed an official letter condemning the Minnesota Democrat&#8217;s exaggerations, implications, and lies regarding his time in service.
Keilar asked Waltz about the letter during a Wednesday segment, repeatedly accusing Waltz and other Republicans of attacking Walz&#8217;s service — Waltz was quick to explain that it was not the service itself that anyone was attacking, but rather the lies about it.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We’re NOT attacking Tim Walz’s service. We just want to know, if he is “damn proud” of it, why has he continued to misrepresent and lie about it his entire career?
The veterans community is waiting for his answer. <a href="https://t.co/rh6XQSscUE">pic.twitter.com/rh6XQSscUE</a>
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelgwaltz/status/1826358154025996589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Keilar began by saying that the letter was an attack on Walz&#8217;s military service, adding, &#8220;Why are you doing that?&#8221;
&#8220;No, I disagree. I’m sorry, Brianna –&#8221; Waltz pushed back.
&#8220;You were attacking — well, I read the letter — so then, OK, you are attacking his representation of –&#8221; Keilar tried again.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1723831707612000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0pyrv88A5nsmWM2F2Wr9As">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a>
&#8220;I am attacking the lies about his service,&#8221; Waltz clarified.
&#8220;Let me say what’s in the letter. The comment about the gun, the weapon of war that he obviously didn’t carry into war, and he should answer a question about that,&#8221; Keilar said. &#8220;And how he represented his retired rank, which was obviously different than what he was promoted to and what he retained after retirement. But also that issue of whether he abandoned his unit for a deployment to Iraq and did not go.&#8221;
Keilar then played a clip of one veteran who had served with Walz — who did not necessarily share his political views — but defended his military record. She did not play clips of others who have spoken out after serving with Walz — including the Command Sergeant Major who ultimately replaced him on the deployment in question — who have repeatedly stated that he left his men high and dry.
&#8220;I mean, that man hates Tim Walz’s politics, despises them, is not going to vote for him. But he served with him and he knows his service,&#8221; Keilar pressed. &#8220;So why are you and other Republicans doing this?&#8221;
&#8220;Well, I want to be clear and correct your characterization,&#8221; Waltz said again. &#8220;I’m not attacking his service &#8230; He said he’s proud of that service. If he’s so damn proud about it, why does he have to continue to embellish it and to lie about it? Because the facts are clear. He was promoted to sergeant major, but he didn’t do the things necessary to retire at that rank and was demoted. And yet there is ample — hundreds, hundreds of incidences where he is describing himself as a retired command sergeant major. That may sound like semantics to some, but to veterans, and particularly enlisted veterans, that matters. It’s a lie, it’s a misrepresentation and exaggeration, and he should account for that. I can tell you as —&#8221;
&#8220;It’s not stolen — it’s not stolen valor,&#8221; Keilar insisted. &#8220;I just want to be clear, and the letter, I’m reading this, I’m reading this, Mike and quote &#8216;abandoning the men and women under your leadership, just as they were getting ready to deploy, was certainly not honorable either.&#8217; That is an attack on his service.&#8221;
&#8220;That is attack on the decision to not go to combat with his unit as a leader,&#8221; Waltz rebutted.
The conversation continued until Waltz finally said, &#8220;Brianna, you know, rather than defending these decisions, I wish you would interview him and ask him those questions, or that he would at least sit down and answer for these inconsistencies. The other thing we say in the letter is repeatedly he was described in front of him, introduced at events, described in articles, as a combat veteran and he did nothing to correct it. And he still today is doing nothing to correct it. So he clearly implied and allow others to describe himself as a combat veteran, and he clearly exaggerated his service, which he shouldn’t have done for political gain. That is unacceptable to the veterans community. It’s an insult to those who did what it took to be a command sergeant major and retire.&#8221;
&#8220;That goes to both his judgment and Harris’ judgment when he’s going to be a heartbeat away as commander-in-chief and likely the only person with any military experience in the room,&#8221; Waltz added.
&#8220;Yeah, look, he has some questions to answer for —&#8221; Keilar agreed, adding, &#8220;I don’t know if it’s worth burning down 24 years of service.&#8221;
&#8220;I wish he would sit down instead of me or JD Vance and answer those questions. The American people deserve it, the veterans community certainly deserve it,&#8221; Waltz shot back.

2023 Concordia Annual Summit – September 18

Rep. Waltz Torches Walz On CNN: ‘If He’s So Damn Proud,’ Why Does He ‘Embellish’ And ‘Lie’?

Rep. Waltz Torches Walz On CNN: 'If He's So Damn Proud,' Why Does He 'Embellish' And 'Lie'?

Afghanistan

Mike Waltz

Military

Tim Walz

CNN&#8217;s <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/spread-the-wealth-jeff-bezos-gives-cnn-host-van-jones-100-million-for-charity/">Van Jones</a> said Friday that Democrats were having trouble reaching middle class Americans because some of their marketing strategies were &#8220;just weird&#8221; and didn&#8217;t appeal to regular, working people.
Jones spoke with &#8220;New Day&#8221; anchors <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/cnn-anchor-confronts-energy-secretary-on-bidens-oil-company-bait-and-switch/">John Berman</a> and Brianna Keilar about Democratic prospects going into November&#8217;s midterm elections, and he argued that the party did not appear to have a cohesive message that was resonating with the people in the middle.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CNN host Van Jones leaves panel in shock after slamming the elitism of the Democrat party. <a href="https://t.co/V4zylQ6on2">pic.twitter.com/V4zylQ6on2</a>
&mdash; The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1537857079410577409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 17, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Jones began by explaining that the Democratic Party was quickly becoming &#8220;the party of the very high and the very low,&#8221; saying that they were working so hard to please the academic elites and those at the very bottom of the food chain that the largest group — the middle — was getting lost.
&#8220;If you pull out the working class, you&#8217;ve got people who are very well educated and very well off. Those people talk funny — Latinx? I&#8217;ve never met a Latinx. I&#8217;ve never met a BIPOC. I&#8217;ve never met — you know — all this weird stuff that these highly-educated people say, it&#8217;s bizarre. Nobody talks that was at the barber shop, the nail salon, the grocery store, the community center — but that&#8217;s how we talk now, so that&#8217;s weird.&#8221;
&#8220;And then the people who are very low down on the economic ladder need a bunch of stuff,&#8221; Jones continued. &#8220;You wind up overpromising — you know, &#8216;We&#8217;ve gotta give you reparations,&#8217; to people at the bottom of the economic ladder, talking weird to appeal to people at the top of the economic ladder, and the working class walks away from you. That is the danger we&#8217;re facing.&#8221;
Jones&#8217; comments echo the sentiment of longtime Democratic strategist <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/james-carville-blames-stupid-wokeness-for-election-losses/">James Carville</a>, who has often spoken out about the party&#8217;s focus on &#8220;woke&#8221; language at the expense of kitchen table issues.
&#8220;I mean, this ‘defund the police’ lunacy, this take Abraham Lincoln’s name off of schools. I mean that — people see that,&#8221; Carville said after Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) won last November. &#8220;It’s just really — has a suppressive effect all across the country on the Democrats. Some of these people need to go to a ‘woke’ detox center or something. They’re expressing a language that people just don’t use, and there’s backlash and a frustration at that.&#8221;

Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club Celebrates 18th Anniversary

‘I’ve Never Met A Latinx’: Van Jones Says The Way Liberals Talk Is ‘Just Weird’

Van Jones Says Liberals Are Out Of Touch With Middle Class

2022 Election

2022 Midterms

John Berman

Van Jones

CNN anchor Brianna Keilar cornered Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer during a Tuesday morning interview, pressing him over whether Russia&#8217;s latest &#8220;incursion&#8221; into Ukraine actually constituted an &#8220;invasion.&#8221;
Finer said several times that Russia&#8217;s <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/breaking-russia-recognizes-independence-of-breakaway-regions-in-ukraine/">recognition of two pro-Russia regions of Ukraine</a> — and subsequent steps taken under the guise of protecting those regions — amounted to &#8220;the beginning of an invasion,&#8221; prompting Keilar to respond: &#8220;Just call it an invasion.&#8221; In the hours after this interview transpired, however, the Biden administration <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/breaking-white-house-labels-russian-troop-movements-an-invasion/">appeared to pivot</a>, officially labeling the still-unfolding situation as an &#8220;invasion.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;An invasion is an invasion and that is what is under way,&quot; says WH Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer as Putin orders troops into Eastern Ukraine. <a href="https://t.co/yvRfZJGqBY">pic.twitter.com/yvRfZJGqBY</a>
&mdash; Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) <a href="https://twitter.com/brikeilarcnn/status/1496117889992118272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
After amassing some 190,000 troops along Ukraine&#8217;s border — and doing little to dispel fears of an imminent invasion — Russia announced Monday that it would officially recognize the independent status of two pro-Russia regions of Ukraine. After confirming his intention to recognize Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties promising to preserve and defend those republics — and sent troops into those regions, claiming that they were to undertake a &#8220;peacekeeping mission.&#8221;
This all comes after weeks of posturing and intelligence that suggested Putin might use a &#8220;false flag&#8221; operation to provide cover for an invasion into Ukraine, and Keilar addressed that situation with Finer on Tuesday morning&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;New Day.&#8221;
&#8220;Look, Brianna, we think this is, yes, the beginning of an invasion, Russia’s latest invasion into Ukraine, and you’re already seeing the beginning of our response that we have said will be swift and severe,&#8221; Finer said. He also noted that in addition to new sanctions from the United States, Germany had announced Tuesday a plan to refuse certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
&#8220;So you called this the beginning of the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Keilar pressed. “Is that different than an invasion?”
&#8220;I think latest is important here. An invasion is an invasion and that is what is under way. But Russia has been invading Ukraine since 2014,” Finer said. &#8220;They’ve been occupying large pieces of Ukraine since 2014 including, although they’ve denied it, Russian troop presence in exactly the two, what they now call republics, but they’re really provinces of a sovereign Ukraine, that they recognized yesterday. So Russia is essentially making overt what it has denied for some time, which is Russian troop presence in these places and we are taking steps in response to that.&#8221;
&#8220;Why not call it an invasion?” Keilar asked. &#8220;Just call it an invasion instead of this talking point of &#8216;the beginning of the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine&#8217;?&#8221;
&#8220;I don’t know how much more clear I can be, Brianna. This is the beginning of an invasion,&#8221; Finer insisted.
&#8220;Okay. You could just call it an invasion,&#8221; Keilar pressed again, noting that the Biden administration had been very clear in the weeks leading up to the current situation about what they believed constituted an &#8220;invasion.&#8221;
<ul>
<li>President Biden, January 20: &#8220;If any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion. But it will be met with severe and coordinated economic response that I’ve discussed in detail with our allies as well as laid out very clearly for President Putin.&#8221;</li>
<li>Secretary of State Antony Blinken, January 21: &#8220;If any Russian military forces move across Ukraine’s border, that’s a renewed invasion. It will be met with swift, severe and a united response from the United States and our partners and allies.&#8221;</li>
<li>National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, February 6: &#8220;President Biden has spoken to the fact that if a Russian tank or a Russian troop moves across the border, that’s an invasion. That is an invasion and the result of that, from our perspective, would be the imposition of severe economic consequences.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
&#8220;I think the distinction here may have to do with the response that an invasion triggers,&#8221; Keilar tried once more. “Why not just call it an invasion?”
“I mean, again, I guess for the third or fourth time, I am calling it an invasion,&#8221; Finer conceded.
The Daily Wire’s first original film, Shut In, has made its cinematic debut, being met with rave reviews. The Daily Wire is building an alternative to the leftist entertainment industry, one gripping movie at a time. Join us in this mission and stream Shut In today by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe-shutin?utm_campaign=shutin&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_content=subscribe_shutin&amp;utm_talent=dailywire" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe-shutin?utm_campaign%3Dshutin%26utm_medium%3Deditorial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook%26utm_content%3Dsubscribe_shutin%26utm_talent%3Ddailywire&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1644699149485000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0hSL9sbxEl3fLS6INjonzw">becoming a Daily Wire member</a>.

Politicon 2017 – Day 1

‘Just Call It An Invasion’: CNN’s Brianna Keilar Corners Biden Official On Russia’s Latest Move

Joe Biden

Russia

Ukraine

Vladimir Putin

CNN anchor Brianna Keilar declared Fox News guilty of &#8220;the ultimate moral crime&#8221; with regard to COVID-19, arguing that the network had allowed the propagation of misinformation in order to drive ratings.
&#8220;Yes, we are tired of the pandemic. That may be the one sentiment people can actually agree on,&#8221; <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/watch-mary-katharine-ham-mercilessly-mocks-aoc-for-claiming-republicans-just-want-to-date-her/">Keilar</a> began, playing a clip of the now-viral conversation between former New York Times editor Bari Weiss and comedian <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/its-half-the-country-bill-maher-explains-why-he-cant-get-behind-hating-trump-voters/">Bill Maher</a> — during which both expressed frustrations with the continued restrictions and paranoia associated with COVID-19.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Why is Rupert Murdoch, one of the first to get vaccinated, allowing anti-science BS on the air? It is killing people. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RollTheTape?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RollTheTape</a> <a href="https://t.co/aaoly6AwyK">pic.twitter.com/aaoly6AwyK</a>
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) <a href="https://twitter.com/brikeilarcnn/status/1486347243003297794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Keilar first responded by saying that while she understood the frustrations that Weiss and Maher were expressing, she wasn&#8217;t sure that they were being directed in the correct way.
&#8220;Sure would be nice if COVID were done with us too. Done with hospitals, done with the doctors and the nurses who are stretched to their breaking points in many cases. We are not, though, done. We’re not back to normal. And that is because so many people are still actively choosing not to be vaccinated,&#8221; Keilar said. &#8220;So I get her outrage. I’m not sure I get the direction of it.&#8221;
Keilar then turned her ire on Fox News, criticizing the network for allowing popular host Tucker Carlson to host &#8220;clowns&#8221; like Alex Berenson, who argued that no one should be getting the <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/stop-it-now-biden-scolds-cable-tv-and-social-media-purveyors-of-lies-on-vaccines/">mRNA vaccines</a> made by Pfizer and Moderna.
&#8220;It is completely clear now that the vaccines don’t really work at all against Omicron. In these highly vaccinated and highly boosted countries, rates of infection are incredibly high. And rates of serious disease and death are also rising. The mRNA COVID vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market now. No one should get them. No one should get boosted, no one should get double boosted. They are a dangerous and ineffective product at this point,&#8221; Berenson said.
Keilar noted that Twitter had already banned Berenson for &#8220;spreading misinformation,&#8221; adding, &#8220;He’s lying about the vaccine and the protection it provides. But Fox, Fox had this mad nonscientist on all pandemic.&#8221;
She went on to share some statistics about the impact of COVID-19 on vaccinated people compared to unvaccinated people, arguing that the vaccine reduced the number of people who had severe disease or died after contracting the virus. She also argued that the highest case rates and hospitalization rates were in red states, run by Republican governors — which she equated with also having a large number of Fox News viewers.
&#8220;The network spent the past 24 hours up in arms over the Biden administration’s decision to restrict the use of two monoclonal antibody treatments, treatments that are proven not to work against the Omicron variant, according to the FDA,&#8221; Keilar added. &#8220;None of that coverage at Fox Entertainment, of course, is aimed at the real and most urgent issue, which is people not getting the protection of the vaccine. Also strange, that anti-vaxxers are just fine getting COVID treatments, amazing miracles of science, once they get COVID and they are staring down the odds — but they don’t want the vaccine, also a miracle of science. And, again, the daily double question is why is Rupert Murdoch, who was one of the first to get vaccinated, allowing this anti-science BS on the air? Because it is killing people. But, you know, ratings, and that is the ultimate moral crime.&#8221;

‘Anti-Science BS’: Brianna Keilar Declares Fox News Guilty Of ‘The Ultimate Moral Crime’ On COVID

COVID

COVID-19 Vaccine

Fox News

CNN contributor Mary Katharine Ham mocked Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) over her claim that Republicans attack her because they secretly want to date her.
Ham joined anchors Brianna Keilar and John Berman on Monday&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;New Day&#8221; to discuss the viral tweets showing that Ocasio-Cortez spent New Year&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ocasio-cortez-caught-partying-in-miami-without-mask-rules-for-thee-but-not-for-me">vacationing maskless</a> in Florida — and the Congresswoman&#8217;s response to criticisms that she vacationed while her home state faced a record-shattering wave of new COVID-19 cases.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It’s only Monday, but <a href="https://twitter.com/mkhammer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mkhammer</a> has already won the week with this savage mockery of AOC’s self-absorbed vanity. 😂😂😂 <a href="https://t.co/M7n7Cm4aA6">pic.twitter.com/M7n7Cm4aA6</a>
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) <a href="https://twitter.com/guypbenson/status/1478064060709101570?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Berman and Keilar introduced the segment by noting that, after photos of her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/im-not-surprised-desantis-says-hed-be-a-pretty-doggone-wealthy-man-if-he-had-a-dollar-for-every-lockdown-politician-who-escaped-to-florida">Florida vacation</a> made the rounds on a number of conservative outlets, she had lashed out at her critics by calling them &#8220;creepy weirdos&#8221; and claiming that &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ocasio-cortez-slammed-for-claiming-republicans-are-mad-they-cant-date-me-broke-the-cringe-meter">sexual frustration</a>&#8221; had played a part in driving their hatred of her.
&#8220;If Republicans are mad they can’t date me they can just say that instead of projecting their sexual frustrations onto my boyfriend’s feet. Ya creepy weirdos,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez said, referencing a comment someone had made about her boyfriend&#8217;s sandals. &#8220;It’s starting to get old ignoring the very obvious, strange, and deranged sexual frustrations that underpin the Republican fixation on me, women, &amp; LGBT+ people in general. These people clearly need therapy, won’t do it, and use politics as their outlet instead. It’s really weird.&#8221;
&#8220;First of all, I woke up like this. So I have authority on people being sexually frustrated by my mere existence,&#8221; Ham began in mocking tones. &#8220;I&#8217;m glad to be able to discuss this with you. The plight of the super hot in America has long been ignored. AOC has started a national conversation about this. You know, I know we have all dealt with it &#8230; You know, we can start an organization or something.&#8221;
&#8220;Just the other day, I noticed the IRS keeps sending me notices even though I never expressed any interest in them. And it&#8217;s like, &#8216;why are you so obsessed with me?'&#8221; Ham continued. &#8220;One day you wake up and think is there more to life than being ridiculously good looking? I did it. And now I’m here. AOC did it and now she’s a Congresswoman. And in that capacity, you have to answer questions. And, like — I’m goofing on this because it’s goofy. To question the motives of every questioner you come across I don’t think behooves you.&#8221;
&#8220;She can answer the questions about being in Florida without going here. And by the way, I know because I’m talking about this, there are weirdos who will get weird in my comment section right now. &#8216;Hi, how is it going? You can’t date me. This is the real plight of being a woman in the public eye. And there is some of that out there,&#8221; Ham added. &#8220;But we also have to answer fair questions. And a fair question to AOC is, &#8216;Hey, is your trip with your partner to Florida dangerous to yourself and others? And if not, why not?&#8217; It suggests people can use their personal freedoms to make decisions about their risk profiles and go forward in the world of COVID.&#8221;

COP26 – Day Ten Gender, Science and Innovation

WATCH: Mary Katharine Ham Mercilessly Mocks AOC For Claiming Republicans Just Want To Date Her

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Florida

Mary Katharine Ham

CNN host Brianna Keilar grilled Texas Lt. Governor candidate Matthew Dowd (D), a former Republican strategist running as a Democrat, during an interview on Monday over why he deleted hundreds of thousands of tweets right before announcing that he was running for office.
Dowd claimed that it was a &#8220;conspiracy theory&#8221; conjured up by Fox News before almost immediately admitting that he deleted up to 270,000 &#8220;old tweets.&#8221;
&#8220;But why?&#8221; Keilar asked.
&#8220;Cleaning up my files long before I even thought about running in this race,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;But again, it&#8217;s a typical Fox thing to turn to some conspiracy, thinking it has more meaning than it actually does.&#8221;
&#8220;Why did you do it, then?&#8221; Keilar asked.
&#8220;I just said, Brianna, I did it because I just wanted to clean up all of my files and get rid of all of the stuff that had accumulated over time,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;There&#8217;s no reason.&#8221;
&#8220;I understand that, but this isn&#8217;t like emptying your e-mail inbox, to be clear, getting rid of all your old e-mails,&#8221; she continued.
Keilar again pressed Dowd, asking, why he deleted the tweets knowing that doing so would &#8220;illicit scrutiny.&#8221;
&#8220;So, what I think is happening, Brianna, and I think it&#8217;s unfortunate, is Fox News does this, which is dreams up some conspiracy theory, as they always do, which is obviously not &#8212; has nothing to do with anything of what we&#8217;re talking about. And then people begin to repeat it,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;Again, I cleaned up my inbox in, I think, it was May or June &#8212; just deleted all my old tweets. I have &#8212; I think I have 5,000 sitting there. And so, I just think we shouldn&#8217;t play into Fox&#8217;s new sort of conspiracy theories.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Matthew Dowd said he “just decided” earlier in the summer to delete his old tweets and said it’s a “conspiracy theory” to suggest otherwise. 
He deleted around 175,000 tweets a few months before his campaign announcement. This isn’t hard to figure out. <a href="https://t.co/3h7NUOSry5">https://t.co/3h7NUOSry5</a>
&mdash; Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cam_Cawthorne/status/1445132870197075983?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Matthew, you&#8217;re well aware you are being attacked by Republicans and Fox for deleting thousands of tweets. How many tweets did you delete?
MATTHEW DOWD, POLITICAL CANDIDATE (D): I don&#8217;t know. I think what I did was &#8212; and this was long before I &#8212; this is funny about Fox, who looks for anything to sort of come up with some conspiracy theory, as they do.
Earlier in the summer, I thought I have 270,00-260,000 tweets that have just been accumulated. I just decided to go through and delete all of my old tweets, whatever it happened to be. So there&#8217;s no conspiracy thing here. It&#8217;s just &#8212;
KEILAR: But why?
DOWD: &#8212; cleaning up my files long before I even thought about running in this race.
But again, it&#8217;s a typical Fox thing to turn to some conspiracy, thinking it has more meaning than it actually does.
KEILAR: Why did you do it, then?
DOWD: I just said, Brianna, I did it because I just wanted to clean up all of my files and get rid of all of the stuff that had accumulated over time.
KEILAR: I mean, I am &#8212;
DOWD: There&#8217;s no reason. As you know &#8212;
KEILAR: I understand that, but this isn&#8217;t like emptying your e-mail inbox, to be clear. Getting rid of all your old e-mails.
DOWD: Well, I empty my e-mail inbox every single day and I&#8217;m a &#8212; I&#8217;m a person that empties the e-mails and trashes all the stuff. There is no reason, Brianna. You can Google Matthew Dowd and find out everything you possibly want to know about my history and everything I&#8217;ve said. So, everything I&#8217;ve said has been public for the last 20 years. It&#8217;s not a problem. It&#8217;s been completely &#8212; everybody knows who I am, what I&#8217;ve done, and what I&#8217;ve said because I&#8217;ve said it on national television over and over and over for the last two decades.
KEILAR: Then why delete them because you know that is going to raise eyebrows? That&#8217;s going to illicit scrutiny. I mean, in the age of when anyone deletes anything or isn&#8217;t forthcoming with, say, e-mails &#8212; I mean, look, we know where this goes. You know that it&#8217;s going to grab attention.
DOWD: So, what I think is happening, Brianna, and I think it&#8217;s unfortunate, is Fox News does this, which is dreams up some conspiracy theory, as they always do, which is obviously not &#8212; has nothing to do with anything of what we&#8217;re talking about. And then people begin to repeat it.
Again, I cleaned up my inbox in, I think, it was May or June &#8212; just deleted all my old tweets. I have &#8212; I think I have 5,000 sitting there. And so, I just think we shouldn&#8217;t play into Fox&#8217;s new sort of conspiracy theories
KEILAR: I mean, I think it&#8217;s an important question to ask, which is why I&#8217;m asking it.
DOWD: Well, you asked it and I answered it. You asked it and I answered it three times.
KEILAR: I do want to ask you about something that you wrote in 2018. You said, &#8220;I would humbly suggest that we as white male Christians take it upon ourselves to step back and give more people who don&#8217;t look like us access to the levers of power. As a white male Christian in America, I am part of a dwindling subset that has held the levers of power politically and economically in nearly every field for the entire history of the United States.&#8221;
So, obviously, you were expressing sentiment that there needed to be more representation in representation, and now you are running for lieutenant governor. How do you &#8212; how do you square these things?
DOWD: I think they&#8217;re completely squarable. I have said it and I mean it. And I think, actually, the table should be made bigger. That the only way to do that and to have access for people of color, for women, and all that is to create a bigger table. And for people that have held power and held sway and stood up, and to step back.
I think it would be great if people of color, women run for offices, which they will do in Texas along the way. So I hope that happens. I&#8217;m encouraging that to happen. I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any sort of misalignment between those two things. I believe that.
And I believe that we should make the table as big and as broad as possible to fill everybody so it looks as diverse as America does. 
KEILAR: Matthew, I want to thank you for coming on this morning. Obviously, you have quite a race ahead of you and so much going on in Texas, and we appreciate your time.
DOWD: Thanks, Brianna.</blockquote>

AWXII – Day 3

WATCH: CNN Grills Democrat Candidate Matthew Dowd Over Why He Deleted Thousands Of Tweets

CNN&#8217;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 <a href="http://twitter.com/Harlan">Harlan Hill</a> of &#8220;slanderous&#8221; accusations against Trump coming from her and fellow CNN colleague Angela Rye, stating that she was not &#8220;necessarily&#8221; accusing Trump of being an anti-Semite: &#8220;No, that is not what we are doing. We are talking about his language condemning anti-Semitism. That doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean we are accusing him of being anti-Semitic.&#8221;

&#8220;This is slanderous!&#8221; proclaimed Hill in defense of Trump against innuendo-laden descriptions of the president as anti-Semitic from Keilar and Rye.

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/living/jcc-bomb-threats-anti-semitism/">CNN reported</a> 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&#8217;s presidency. Its headline cast Trump as tardy in his response: &#8220;11 more bomb threats target Jewish community. Trump finally responds.&#8221;

Keilar introduced the segment with a characterization of Trump as insufficiently opposed to anti-Semitism, describing a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-antisemitism-idUSKBN1601QY">recent statement from Trump</a> as &#8220;the first time&#8221; he addressed the aforementioned series of anti-Semitic threats.
 
&#8220;Why do you think Donald Trump spoke out now, and why do you think it took him so long to do so?&#8221; asked Keilar. She later pointed to <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/319954-trump-clashes-with-jewish-reporter-over-anti-semitism-question">Trump&#8217;s derision of an observant Jewish reporter</a> 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&#8217;s conduct as &#8220;questionable&#8221; with respect to anti-Semitism.

Hill &#8211; apparently a former supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders&#8217;s (D-VT) presidential campaign and now a supporter of Trump&#8217;s &#8211; sought to shift the segment&#8217;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 &#8220;black [and] brown people:&#8221;

<blockquote>
&#8220;We know there&#8217;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.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Keilar offered no challenge to any of Rye&#8217;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 &#8220;The Most Trusted Name In News.&#8221;

H/T Alex Griswold at <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/this-is-slanderous-cnn-panel-clashes-over-donald-trumps-rhetoric-on-anti-semitism/">Mediaite</a>

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.
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