CNN’s Brianna Keilar Hits Bernie Sanders for Criticizing the Press: Blaming the Media Is ‘One of His Function Buttons’

CNN’s Brianna Keilar pushed back on Senator Bernie Sanders’ criticism of how the media has covered the big spending bill Democrats are trying to pass.

Sanders put out a statement last Friday saying there’s “overwhelming support” for the legislation, but most Americans don’t know what’s in it because “the mainstream media has done an exceptionally poor job in covering what actually is in the legislation.”

He said the press has been too focused on process and palace intrigue at the expense of more coverage of the substance of the bill.

Keilar brought up his statement on Monday’s New Day and said, “While the media should always be striving to do a better job, it’s just not true that the media hasn’t covered what is in the bill and doesn’t continue to do so. Media outlet after media outlet has covered this.”

She showed a few headlines to back up her point, as well as images from CNN segments, and brought up an argument from former Senator Al Franken that Democrats should be doing more to sell the bill.

As for Sanders’ criticism that the media’s too focused on the cost, Keilar responded by saying, “The price tag matters. That price tag determines what will be in the bill of those policy provisions. And Democrats cannot agree on the price tag.”

She also said there is a lot of focus on the process because “the bill is dead” without the support of the two Democratic holdouts, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

As Keilar wrapped up the segment, she added, “He likes to blame the media for a lot of things, it’s kind of one of his function buttons.”

“That seems to be a bipartisan trend now,” John Berman remarked.

You can watch above, via CNN.