CNN Plays Clip Of Slain Woman’s Mom That They Wouldn’t Air Live — To Get Dem Leader’s ‘Reaction’

CNN anchor Dana Bash played a clip of slain Maryland woman Rachel Morin’s mom from a speech they wouldn’t air live — but found worthy to get a reaction from House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

News broke Monday night that Victor Martinez-Hernandez — who entered the U.S. unlawfully from El Salvador — was found guilty of rape, kidnapping, and the first-degree murder of Maryland mother Rachel Morin. The Trump administration has seized on the case as a counterpoint to the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt introduced Patty Morin during Wednesday’s briefing to recount her daughter’s murder in excruciating detail and denounce Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) efforts on behalf of Garcia — who had nothing to do with the crime. The Trump White House then attacked CNN and MSNBC for not airing Morin’s speech live.

But on Thursday’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, Bash wrapped up an interview with Jeffries by playing part of that speech and asking “What’s your reaction to what you just heard?”:

DANA BASH: I just really want to get this in with you, and so forgive me. I just want to take about 30 seconds to play something for you. And that is Patty Morin. She spoke at the White House yesterday about her daughter, Rachel. Rachel was killed in Maryland in 2023 by a fugitive from El Salvador. Take a listen.

PATTY MORIN: If you’re a mother here in the room, can you imagine standing there alive, you’re alive, and someone comes and puts their hands into your chest and rips out your heart?

That’s what it feels like to have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge or barely acknowledged my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother, and now a grandbaby without a grandmother, so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen.

DANA BASH: And she, of course, is talking about Senator Chris Van Hollen, who has gone to El Salvador to try to see a different man who has been living in his state.

What’s your reaction to what you just heard?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Well, certainly. We deeply sympathize with any American, any individual who has experienced a loss of life of a loved one, certainly those who have lost a child.

No parent should ever be in a situation where they have to bury children.

It’s also important to zoom out and be very clear, at least from my perspective, that violent felons here unlawfully should be deported. We need to secure the border. We do have a broken immigration system. It does need to be fixed in a comprehensive and bipartisan way.

At the same period of time, we are going to defend DREAMers and farm workers and law-abiding immigrant families. That is part of who we are as Americans, both a nation anchored in the rule of law and a nation of immigrants from the very beginning, e pluribus unum, out of many, one.

Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics.