There’s an old idea that a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has time to put its pants on and CNN proved just that this week as Chris Wallace sat down for an interview with Ronna McDaniel on Friday’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, but not before CNN deceptively edited their own interview in order to promote it and portray McDaniel as a conspiracy theorist.
On Wednesday, Wallace joined CNN Primetime host Laura Coates to preview the interview which included a sneak peak of the two discussing the 2020 election:
MCDANIEL: But I don't think he won it fair. I don't. I’m not going to say that.
WALLACE: You're saying you're not sure, as the Republican Party chair, that he was the legitimately elected president.
MCDANIEL: I am saying there were lots of problems with the 2020 election and we need to fix it going forward.
Back in studio, Coates wondered “I mean, Chris, I understand the value of a yes-or-no response. You didn't get one there. So, what does that portend for the tone of this entire race now?”
Wallace decried that “Well, look, there are an awful lot of people, an awful lot of Republicans who don't think that Joe Biden won the election fairly in 2020, even though he did, even though there were 60 court cases that said he did. And you've also got the frontrunner, the overwhelming frontrunner, Donald Trump, who flatly says that he won 2020.”
When Friday rolled around, McDaniel’s answer was very different:
MCDANIEL: But I don't think he won it fair. I don't. I'm not going to say that. I think when you look at -- let's look at the Hunter Biden laptop. Fifty-one people in the intelligence agency signed a letter saying it was Russian disinformation. That's what the public disseminated was being told. That's not true. That's a lie.
It’s not just that the 51 former members of the intelligence community theorized Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation, it is that they did so for explicitly partisan purposes and the media just went along with it. McDaniel is making a case about fake news and implicitly, the media’s unwillingness to combat it when that fake news is spread by Democrats, not pushing wild theories about voting machines or anything of that sort.
Wallace owes viewers and explanation. He knew what McDaniel was talking about on Tuesday, but based off his answers to Coates, he doesn’t care. CNN’s dishonest editing didn’t just allow it to spread a false narrative about McDaniel, it allowed others to do the same. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes panned McDaniel on Thursday as someone who “just can't say the straightforward sentence." While secretary and Friday Way Too Early guest host Ali Vitali added, “And of course we will again underscore the fact president Biden did win the election and he did so fairly"
The fake version also made its way around the internet to Mediaite, the Washington Post, the DNC’s website, and HuffPost.
Wednesday’s CNN Primetime was sponsored by Liberty Mutual and Friday’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace was sponsored by IHOP.
Here are transcripts for the July 12 and 14 shows:
CNN Primetime
7/12/2023
10:21 PM ET
CHRIS WALLACE: Wait a minute, are you saying, as the chair of the Republican Party, that you still have questions as to whether or not Joe Biden was the duly elected president in 2020?
RONNA MCDANIEL: Joe Biden’s the president.
WALLACE: No, I didn't ask you whether he's the president.
MCDANIEL: No, I don't think that –
WALLACE: Do you think he won the election?
MCDANIEL: I think there were lots of problems with question 2020.
WALLACE: Do you think he won the –
MCDANIEL: But, ultimately, he won the election.
WALLACE: Pardon?
MCDANIEL: But, ultimately, he won the election but there were lots of problems with the 2020 election, 100 percent.
WALLACE: And that's fair.
MCDANIEL: But I don't think he won it fair. I don't. I’m not going to say that.
WALLACE: You're saying you're not sure, as the Republican Party chair, that he was the legitimately elected president.
MCDANIEL: I am saying there were lots of problems with the 2020 election and we need to fix it going forward.
LAURA COATES: I mean, Chris, I understand the value of a yes-or-no response. You didn't get one there. So, what does that portend for the tone of this entire race now?
WALLACE: Well, look, there are an awful lot of people, an awful lot of Republicans who don't think that Joe Biden won the election fairly in 2020, even though he did, even though there were 60 court cases that said he did. And you've also got the frontrunner, the overwhelming frontrunner, Donald Trump, who flatly says that he won 2020.
So, I think, you know, as counterintuitive, counter-logical, counterfactual as it may be, it's hard for the chair of the Republican National Committee to come out and say flatly, no, it was a fair election and Joe Biden won it, even if we all -- well, I say we all, if most people know, believe that that's the case.
***
CNN Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace
7/14/2023
10:09 PM ET
WALLACE: Wait a minute. Are you saying as the chair of the Republican Party, that you still have questions as to whether or not Joe Biden was the duly elected president in 2020?
MCDANIEL: Joe Biden’s the president.
WALLACE: No, I didn't ask you whether he's the president.
MCDANIEL: No, I don't think that -- I think there were lots of problems.
WALLACE: Do you think he won the election?
MCDANIEL: I think there were lots of problems with 2020.
WALLACE: Do you think he won the –
MCDANIEL: But, ultimately, he won the election.
WALLACE: Pardon?
MCDANIEL: But, ultimately, he won the election, but there were lots of problems with the 2020 election, 100 percent.
WALLACE: And that's fair.
MCDANIEL: But I don't think he won it fair. I don't. I'm not going to say that. I think when you look at -- let's look at the Hunter Biden laptop. Fifty-one people in the intelligence agency signed a letter saying it was Russian disinformation. That's what the public disseminated was being told. That's not true. That's a lie.
WALLACE: So, you're suggesting that he may not be the legitimate elected president?
MCDANIEL: I'm saying the American people were not given the information they deserve before that election.
