WATCH: CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Fails to Correct GOP Rep Who Repeatedly Accuses Biden of Lying About True Thing

Tommy ChristopherFeb 8th, 2023, 9:26 am

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins failed to correct GOP Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) when he defended heckling President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech by falsely claiming Biden was “lying” — about something that’s actually true.

Biden delivered his first State of the Union address under the new GOP House majority Tuesday night, and pretty much everyone agrees the moment of the night was when the president found himself flat-out arguing with Republicans screaming “LIAR!” in the middle of the speech.

At issue was this 100 percent true and heavily-qualified claim: “Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s a majority.”

On Wednesday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Collins interviewed Lalota, and at one point early in the interview, both interviewer and interviewee agreed to the facts that Biden set forth.

Collins identified one of the proposals Biden referenced, from Florida Senator and NRSC chief Rick Scott, and LaLota admitted the proposal had support — telling Collins “Some of these proposals that come down the way don’t get a lot of support. And that’s one of those ones that did not get much support.”

But LaLota accused Biden of lying in the same breath, and Collins didn’t call him out.

Later in the interview, after professing distaste for the heckling, LaLota admitted he had also jeered the president. He repeatedly defended himself by saying the president “lied” and was “untruthful” — and Collins made no attempt to correct him:

REP. LALOTA: So I think that we need to get to a place where we have proper decorum, a place where we can actually disagree on ideas and not just shout back and forth at each other. I hope that’s the future in this town. I know there’s a strong portion from this side of the aisle who wants to get to that place. I don’t think those one or two incidents necessarily reflect the future of where we’re going.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Did you do any heckling?

REP. LALOTA: I did. I was upset when the president lied about his statement on Social Security, Medicare.

KAITLAN COLLINS: What did you say?

REP. LALOTA: And I was vocal about that. I booed the president during that time. Come from New York. We call it the Bronx cheer when we see something that we don’t like and certainly something that somebody was lying to us in our own house. We’re going to give some feedback then, I hope the next State of the Union, the president’s more truthful on those key issues.

KAITLAN COLLINS: So when you have that line of decorum, you’re saying basically that you can be vocal allowed when you disagree with what you say.

REP. LALOTA: Well, it’s unfortunate the president would choose to engage in that rhetoric. And I think he I don’t know why he did it, but I think he was right to expect a reaction. Maybe he even did it for that reaction. I hope that’s not our future. And the president needs to be truthful at key moments like this.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Yeah, well at the end he had that moment where he got Republicans saying, you know, when you said, yeah, we all agree, no touching Social Security and Medicare. Is that advantageous for him, though, or for Republicans? It seemed advantageous for him, according to the White House.

REP. LALOTA: What’s most important is as advantageous for the country, especially seniors.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. I know you and your wife attended last night. Appreciate your perspective this morning on George Santos and all of this.

REP. LALOTA: Thanks so much.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Thank you.