Brian Stelter and Kathy Barnette Clash Over Media Coverage of Her Doomed Candidacy: ‘You Couldn’t Persuade Sean Hannity’
CNN’s Brian Stelter held an extensive debate with Pennsylvania Republican Kathy Barnette over media coverage of her failed run for Senate.
Barnette marketed herself as fiercely pro-Trump during her Senate run, but the former president endorsed her opponent and said “she has many things in her past which have not been properly explained or vetted.”
Fox News host Sean Hannity agreed, calling out Barnette’s “very troubling history of attacking” Trump. Hannity was among those who noted Barnette’s history of Islamophobic and homophobic remarks, arguing those comments would present a hurdle in the general election.
Barnette has refused to concede, but she led the CNN interview by saying she would support “whoever should prevail” between her rival candidates: David McCormick and Trump-endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz. After that, Stelter began by focusing on how Barnette has blamed her loss on Hannity.
“Was Hannity’s influence that important in the race?” Stelter asked. Barnette responded by broadly swiping at the media coverage of her candidacy:
I think what we saw with my race is a broader issue, right? So the spotlight was shining on me. But I think it’s a much broader story here, and that is partisan journalism we see across both sides of the aisle. Because there are so many people, there are people coming at me from the Left and from the Right. And on Friday evening, five days ago, the American people were being told I’m a member of Black Lives Matter, and then three days later, the same American people were being told I’m marching with white supremacists, right?…There’s a reason so many people feel they cannot trust mainstream media and have to go out and do their own research because there’s so much partisan journalism going on that is creating a very challenging environment for Americans to know what’s true, what’s not true.
Barnette’s complaints about Americans “being told I’m marching with white supremacists” refers to how Hannity was among those who called Barnette out for marching with the alt-right Proud Boys on January 6th.
The interview grew heated when Stelter asked about Barnette’s shaky attempts to answer questions about her background.
Stelter: Last weekend on Fox News Sunday you were asked where were you an adjunct professor, and you did not answer that base question.
Barnette: Nope. That’s not true, Brian.
Stelter: It is. I have the transcript here. You still haven’t told us where you taught. Where did you teach?
Barnette: No, no. I don’t know if it’s laziness as journalists, or something more insidious, but it’s a dereliction of duty. It’s all right there.
Barnette continued to claim “I embellish nothing” about her record while saying “the media refused to do their job and presenting just the facts to the American people and allow the American people to make the decision.”
She and Stelter collided over other ambiguities in her background, and as Barnette claimed she was “ignored” by the media, Stelter moved to press her on her controversial past statements.
“Do you have any response to the folks that say you hate gays and Muslims?” Stelter asked.
“None of those statements were full statements or full thoughts,” Barnette retorted. She also claimed to have “no history of anti-gay” comments, even as Stelter started quoting some of them back to her.
The discussion went on with Barnette defending her campaign and offering more critiques about her media coverage lacking proper context.
“But you couldn’t convince Sean Hannity,” Stelter quipped, “Was that the crux of the problem?”
Hannity responded to Barnette blaming him for her loss this week, saying she owns her own unelectable qualities.
Watch above, via CNN.
