‘Why Go There?’ CNN’s Chris Wallace Grills Kara Swisher About Calling Out Controversial NBC Fetterman Report
CNN anchor Chris Wallace grilled tech journalist Kara Swisher over her decision to call out an NBC News report on Pennsylvania now-Senator-elect John Fetterman that drew criticism from disability advocates.
The latest interviews from Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace on HBO Max feature Swisher, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, and entertainer Billy Porter.
In his interview with Swisher, Wallace asked about her callout of NBC News reporter Dasha Burns’ handling of a computer-aided interview with Fetterman, asking her “Why go there?”:
Chris Wallace: So let me ask you one other aspect of this though. So when an NBC reporter interviewed Lieutenant Governor Fetterman before the election, the reporter, a woman, said that she that he had trouble understanding when they were having small talk before the interview, and you posted this, “sorry to say, but I talked to John Fetterman for over an hour without stop or any ad and this is just nonsense.” Maybe this reporter is just bad at small talk.” Why go there?
Kara Swisher: I don’t know. I was irritated by that because I think she didn’t. She’s not a doctor. I had a stroke. Okay, and I had the exact same thing. I had a hard time with small talk. I was cognitively fine and a lot of times you would say oh, there’s something wrong with you because you can’t get words out. Well, maybe he had a bad day. Maybe he didn’t want to talk to you. I don’t know what it is —
Chris Wallace: But it was her experience. (absolutely) afterwards. Yes, between that and the speech (he had a bad debate) he had a terrible debate and all she was trying to answer was the question everybody had which is how is he.
Kara Swisher: But that doesn’t tell you how he is. I understand why I’m maybe I’m more emotional about it than most people but I experienced that and everyone was — When I was, when I had an hour long interview with him and he answered every question just fine. He had some ums and ahhs, so do many people much less than I thought. I think I was particularly irritated because it played into the GOP efforts to make it a thing, whether it was true or not. To take advantage of someone’s medical crisis, and question things that are just if you know anything about strokes, he was not cognitively impaired, he had sensory issues.
Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace drops three full episodes each Friday morning, and CNN airs a version recapping highlights of the episodes every Sunday at 7 p.m.
Watch the full exchange above via HBO Max and CNN.
