As NewsBusters had previously documented throughout CNN's programming since Attorney General William Barr sent his summary letter to Congress, the network had made it painfully clear that they would not let go of their false Trump-Russia collusion narrative. Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff Marc Short was on Wednesday’s The Situation Room on Wednesday and schooled CNN host Wolf Blitzer after he repeatedly insinuated there was something between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Repeatedly, Blitzer pushed Short on why Trump refused to blame Russia for meddling in our elections (even though Trump had done so). “I think there's a lot of evidence that Russia has been a malign character in a lot of this, and they have been looking to sow seeds of discord in lots of ways,” Short began. From there, Short unloaded against the press.
“But can I just say why I think that a lot of the coverage here has been so deranged for the last couple years? Because you continue to see new news stories today, well, what about -- is he going to accept Russia interference or Russia collusion,” Short continued.
Short proceeded to unravel a laundry list of actions President Trump had taken against Russia, some of which included killing Russians (e.g. in Syria and Ukraine):
And yet never does the media take a step back and say, which president is the one that actually armed the Ukrainians? Was it Trump or was it Obama? It was Trump. Which president actually decided to bomb Syria, and in that action actually killed several Russian mercenaries? It was Trump, when Obama just said he was going to draw a red line in the sand.
Which president pulled out of INF, against Russian objections? It was Trump. It was not Obama. Which president has kicked out more diplomats? It was Trump, not Obama. Which president has put more sanctions on? It was Trump. It was not Obama.
And just today, you saw the president again make statements about Russian interference in Venezuela. This president has stood up to Russia time and again.
“And yet the media continues to push this notion about Russia collusion,” Short decried, “or perhaps, even on your network, I saw this weekend, when the story broke, CNN was saying, well, then why is he always talking so nicely about Putin?”
He also added: “You're not actually looking at the facts of what this administration has done and how hard it's been. Look at the facts.”
CNN busted out the tin foil hats on Monday when OutFront host Erin Burnett was seriously concerned, asking questions about whether the President himself and/or members of his inner circle were “compromised” by the Russians. “That's a crucial question to imagine that we don't know the answer to,” Burnett exclaimed.
During Monday’s Prime Time, host Chris Cuomo argued that “Mueller can't show that Trump did nothing wrong”, and suggested the evidence for collusion, “[a]ll could be folded into the counterintelligence investigation that the AG didn't even mention in miss summary.”
This is CNN.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Situation Room
March 27, 2019
6:12:28 p.m. Eastern(…)
WOLF BLITZER: All right, let's begin with all the breaking news. And then we will move on to some of the other issues.
On the Mueller report, the chairman, you just heard, of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, just telling CNN that the Attorney General will not commit to releasing the full report.
Would it be a mistake for the attorney general to withhold information that isn't classified or sensitive grand jury proceedings?
MARC SHORT: Wolf, I haven't read the report, so it's hard for me to second-guess the Attorney General. I trust his judgment on this. I think the President's weighed in about his preference for as much transparency as possible. But, no, I certainly have confidence in the Attorney General's decision on that.
BLITZER: As you know, the U.S. intelligence community says the Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump. Now the Mueller report confirms that assessment. But President Trump has never fully accepted that conclusion.
(…)
BLITZER: Now that Robert Mueller has said so in his report, Bill Barr, the Attorney General, has accepted that, are the President and the Vice President -- and you're the chief of staff for the Vice President -- finally ready to accept, once and for all, that the Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election?
SHORT: Wolf, I think there's a lot of evidence that Russia has been a malign character in a lot of this, and they have been looking to sow seeds of discord in lots of ways. And so, yes, I accept that they interfered. But can I just say why I think that a lot of the coverage here has been so deranged for the last couple years? Because you continue to see new news stories today, well, what about -- is he going to accept Russia interference or Russia collusion?
And yet never does the media take a step back and say, which president is the one that actually armed the Ukrainians? Was it Trump or was it Obama? It was Trump. Which president actually decided to bomb Syria, and in that action actually killed several Russian mercenaries? It was Trump, when Obama just said he was going to draw a red line in the sand.
Which president pulled out of INF, against Russian objections? It was Trump. It was not Obama. Which president has kicked out more diplomats? It was Trump, not Obama. Which president has put more sanctions on? It was Trump. It was not Obama.
And just today, you saw the president again make statements about Russian interference in Venezuela. This president has stood up to Russia time and again. And yet the media continues to push this notion about Russia collusion -- or perhaps, even on your network, I saw this weekend, when the story broke, CNN was saying, well, then why is he always talking so nicely about Putin? You're not actually looking at the facts of what this administration has done and how hard it's been. Look at the facts.
BLITZER: Well, explain that. Well, while you raise the issue, why doesn't the president flatly say what his intelligence community is saying, the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, says? Why doesn't he simply say, yes, the Russians did it, and Putin is wrong?
SHORT: Wolf, look at what he said just simply today about Venezuela. He's again stood up to Russia in much stronger terms than previous administrations have. I think that it's time the media began actually looking at the record on this.
(…)
