CNN’s Brianna Keilar Demolishes Piers Morgan for Simone Biles Critique: His ‘Only Athletic Claim to Fame’ is Running Off the Set During His Show

By Leia IdlibyJul 28th, 2021, 11:25 am
 

CNN’s Brianna Keilar tore into Piers Morgan after he penned a column critical of Simone Biles’ decision to withdraw from certain Olympic competitions — going after his “athletic claim to fame.”

The anchor first noted that Biles’ decision to step back came after she posted a score that was weaker than usual following an error on her vault landing. Unlike Biles’ haters, however — who attributed her withdrawal to an attempt at covering up the stumble — Keilar recognized that her less-than-stellar performance could be an indicator of her struggles with mental health.

Keilar then went after Morgan, as well as other Biles detractors, later noting that Biles is “the only survivor of [Larry] Nassar’s campaign of abuse representing her team USA,” and pointing to spikes in “suicide-related visits to the emergency room.”

“On Twitter, Piers Morgan, whose only athletic claim to fame is that he ran off the set of his former TV show simply because another host questioned his criticism of Meghan Markle, complained, ‘Are ‘mental health issues’ now the go-to excuse for any poor performance in elite sport? What a joke. Just admit you did badly, made mistakes, and will strive to do better next time. Kids need strong role models not this nonsense.”

“Yeah, maybe a role model like a 24-year-old who slays competition after competition and mentors the younger members of her team, who between the last Olympics and this one, came out as one of the more than 150 athletes who said publicly that they were sexually assaulted by former team doctor Larry Nassar, right under the nose of USA gymnastics,” Keilar continued, later playing a video of harrowing accounts from the USA gymnastics team.

In the clip, Biles explains that she used to sleep all of the time after she was sexually assaulted by Nassar, even telling her mother and agent that she slept because it was “basically better than offing myself.”

Keilar, who hosted while CNN’s chyron read, “White male talking heads question courage of Simone Biles,” additionally went after the gymnast’s other critics, saying they “don’t know what they’re talking about.”

In addition to Morgan’s analysis on Biles, Charlie Kirk slammed her as “immature,” labeling her a “selfish sociopath” and “a shame to the country.”

Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb, also took aim at Biles, implying that there is a double standard in sports that prioritizes female athletes.

“If we’re ok with Simone Biles saying, ‘hey, couldn’t go tonight. Mental health.’ Are we gonna be OK if LeBron [James] says the same thing?” Gottlieb asked on Tuesday. “She’s the greatest gymnast going. He’s the greatest basketball player going. Why do we have sympathy for Simone Biles, but we wouldn’t have sympathy for LeBron James? It’s called a double standard!”

“The mental health epidemic is real. And it’s life-threatening. And these critics of Simone Biles’ — they’re not just picking on a 24-year-old woman, who let’s be honest has a thing or two to teach them about mental toughness, they’re sending a message to people who are struggling, that if they’re really tough, they won’t prioritize their mental health. These critics of Simone Biles don’t know what they’re talking about. They are witnessing strength, even if they condemn it as weakness,” Keilar added, giving the information of a crisis hotline.

Morgan later hit back at Keilar on Twitter, accusing her of virtue-signaling and claiming he ran back onto the set of Good Morning Britain after realizing that “quitting is cowardly.”

In addition to responding to Keilar, Morgan answered several of his haters on Twitter — insisting that he “never quits,“ loves “strong black women,” takes “mental illness very seriously,” and that he only struggles when going up the stairs because he’s “just had covid.”

Watch above, via CNN.

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