Despite having to pay out the nose due to losing a defamation lawsuit yet again, CNN insists on continuing to disseminate the stupid “Salute Hoax”. The latest instance came via the most recent episode of CNN State of the Union.
Watch as host Dana Bash and Illinios Governor JB Pritzker gleefully engage in Salute Trutherism:
I DID NAZI THAT COMING: Having just been smacked for defamation, CNN books Obama oligarch and ILGOV JB Pritzker for further propagation of the well-debunked Salute Hoax against @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/vOeckeZdTS
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 26, 2025
CNN STATE OF THE UNION
1/26/25
9:31 AM
DANA BASH: I want to ask you about an election that's actually going to happen in Germany, because Elon Musk addressed a rally for a far-right political party there this weekend, and he told them that they had his support and Trump's support and that Germans should focus less on past guilt. I also want to ask you about a post that he put up on on his social media platform, a series of quote, unquote jokes using the names of Nazi leaders in response to the backlash after he made what appeared to be to many people to be a Nazi salute at a rally. Musk denies that that's something that he did. But I wonder what your response is to all of this.
JB PRITZKER: Look. At a moment when anti-semitism is at an all time high in my lifetime, we have a very prominent figure who is very closely associated with the president standing up at a presidential rally and giving two Nazi salutes in a row. Now, if he didn't mean it, he should apologize. But he knows very well what those things mean. And even again, if he didn't mean them, afterward you could say, and he should: “I didn't mean that that wasn't the symbol I was trying to show.” Now, here's what I think about it. Neo-nazis across the United States celebrated when he did that. That should be some indication to everybody about why this is so important for him to call out. Now, what does he follow it up with? Jokes about Nazis. Jokes. Like it's okay, and then showing up in a, you know, video presentation to the far-right folks who are the most anti-semitic in German politics and, you know, and standing up for them and telling them, I'm for you. That's bad for the United States. It's bad for Jews across the world. It's bad for Germany. And President Trump ought to be calling that out. If he doesn't agree with Elon Musk, if he doesn't agree with two seig heils at his own rally and backing a party that backs Nazis, then he ought to say so. Why isn’t Donald Trump speaking out?
Bash quickly called Elon Musk’s innocuous gesture a “Nazi Salute”, unlike her CNN colleagues Erin Burnett and Kasie Hunt, whose nervous demurral when it came time to say “Nazi” led to hilarious verbal roundabouts. If Burnett and Hunt got nervous anti-defamation guidance, Bash seems to have ignored it.
After repeating the charge, Bash tosses to Illinois governor and Obama-adjacent oligarch JB Pritzker, who proceeds to take some shots of his own. Notice how the billionaire governor is shielded from the current “oligarchy” talk. There’s a (d)ifference, you see.
The accusation is baseless and was quickly debunked, yet CNN is trying their hardest to make it stick. But at this rate, it is likelier that the next thing to stick is another defamation finding.
