"Can't deny." Looks like CNN has fallen back on those words to cover those unfortunate situations where—much as commentators would like to diminish the accomplishments of the Trump administration or address inconvenient truths—pesky facts have made that impossible.
Thus it was that last month, commenting on the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the DC Jewish museum, we caught CNN security analyst Juliette Kayyem, a former Obama DHS appointee, saying:
"We can't deny [that] the suspect said Free Palestine."
Sorry, Juliette. It would have been ever so much better if he had yelled, "Jews will not replace us!"
The catchphrase was employed again on today's CNN This Morning. Discussing the US strikes on Iran, CNN commentator Sabrina Singh, a former deputy Pentagon press secretary for President Biden, said:
"I mean, you cannot deny the professionalism of our military when it came to this operation."
Our sympathies, Sabrina. Oh, and by the way, who is the Commander-in-Chief of our military, the man who ordered those strikes?
To comment on the Iranian situation, host Audie Cornish assembled a panel that—as is her wont—was devoid of any Republican, let alone a Trump fan. In addition to Singh, there was the perennially anti-Trump CNN.com hype writer Stephen Collinson, and Joel Rubin, a former Obama aide.
In the subsequent segment, who did Cornish bring in other than . . . the aforementioned Juliette 'Can't Deny' Kayyem!
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. So let's adopt the catchphrase and declare:
"You can't deny that CNN is a liberal-loaded, unfair 'n unbalanced operation!"
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
6/23/25
6:15 am EDTAUDIE CORNISH: It was interesting, you were saying that this is like the capstone military strike of the post-October 7th era.
And Sabrina, you were pointing out, 25-minute operation for 75 strikes. So it was designed for impact. Unfortunately, we don't know what that impact is. What are you looking for going forward?
SABRINA SINGH: It was an incredibly complex operation. I mean, you cannot deny the professionalism of our military when it came to this operation.
I think there's a lot to be determined, and the battle damage assessment is ongoing, on how effective these strikes were. Essentially, what's going to happen over the next few days is, different intelligence agencies across the administration are going to be looking for chatter to see what people are talking about, how damaged things are.
And then, of course, there's the human sources, either on the ground or all around the world, that they'll be getting collection from. I think it's still too early to tell. But to say that some of these facilities have been severely damaged, I think that is accurate. And that's what you heard from the chairman yesterday.
