WATCH: John Avlon Accuses Bill Maher and Guest of Parroting Propaganda Minutes After Ripping Biden WH for Making Same Charge
CNN commentator John Avlon ripped the Biden White House for accusing others of parroting enemy propaganda — then did exactly that thing to Bill Maher and fellow guest Katrina vanden Heuvel minutes later.
On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Avlon and vanden Heuvel were Maher’s guests for a discussion of the roiling Russia/Ukraine situation.
Both guests began the segment by slamming the Biden administration over two recent exchanges with the press.
One was between White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe, in which Rascoe expressed skepticism about the official story regarding civilian casualties during the raid that killed the leader of ISIS in Syria; the other was between State Department spokesman Ned Price and AP reporter Matt Lee in which Lee expressed skepticism about U.S. intel that suggests Russia may engineer a fake attack by Ukraine.
In each case, the reporters were cautioned against believing enemy propaganda in a manner that was heavy-handed enough to cause widespread outcry.
Ms. vanden Heuvel brought up the issue, saying “I was watching CNN as well, and we played the tape of Ari Fleischer in 2001 saying to you, Bill Maher, you better watch what you say and watch what you do. And they are bringing that spirit back. When Jen Psaki or Ned Price, Defense and White House tell a journalist, if you raise questions about intelligence, you are parroting Russia. That’s a smear…”
Avlon agreed that “That was an absolute smear against journalists doing their job,” but minutes later, made the exact same accusation against vanden Heuvel and Maher, both of whom argued there’s division among Ukrainians on the Russia issue. Ms. vanden Heuvel was not amused:
MR. MAHER: Ukraine is the ancestral home of Russia, Kyiv. That’s where the Russian state started in Kyiv…
MS. VANDEN HEUVEL:They have a deep deep interest…
MR. MAHER: … Is the first era of Russian history. No, I’m just saying I’m not saying he’s … he’s a good guy or that he should invade…
MR. AVLON: Let’s let the Ukrainians decide whether they want to be taken over by Russia.
MR. MAHER: Some of them do…
MS. VANDEN HEUVEL: Ukraine is deeply divided…
MR. AVLON: Ukraine is not divided, you are absolutely muddying the point and echoing Russian talking points, unfortunately.
MS. VANDEN HEUVEL: Ooooh!
MR. MAHER: I’m just saying that is…
MR. AVLON: You are, and just, you are making…
MS. VANDEN HEUVEL: That is where the debate in this country has broken down. You don’t say to someone who is speaking from the words of knowledge about NATO-Russia-Gorbachev. And you say I’m parroting Russian talking points? When I speak, when I speak about nuclear issues is that a Russian…
MR. AVLON: And when Putin took when Putin took Crimea, his argument was his argument was, You know what? These are all native Russians. So let’s not worry about about about structures like, you know, people being able to decide their own destiny and national sovereignty.
Watch above via HBO.
