CNN’s Brianna Keilar Practically Begs Katie Hill to Return to Congress At End of Flattering Interview

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CNN’s Brianna Keilar interviewed former Congresswoman Katie Hill on Monday’s New Day and eagerly probed her on the subject of a potential future run for office.

The segment began with Keilar asking Hill, who was in congress for 11 months, her expert take on current issues in the House such as the Don McGahn subpoenas. To comic effect.

When the topic turned to the reason Hill resigned in disgraced, Keilar did not directly address it. Instead, keeping with the framing that it was an unjust “revenge porn” incident, rather than that then representative Katie Hill and her husband had an inappropriate and possibly abusive sexual relationship with a very young female employee, as well as an affair with a male staffer and, after the affairs were exposed, it was also revealed that she was dating a Playboy journalist who was leading the media charge against the blog RedState, which broke the story, and British tabloid Daily Mail and two of its reporters over their reporting.

“You have been leading an effort since you left congress to deal with the issue of revenge porn,” said Keilar, who did not mention that Hill lost her own “revenge porn” lawsuit against the journalists that broke the story of her misconduct and was forced to pay over a quarter-million dollars for their legal fees.

Keilar and Hill discussed the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, which Hill said is being held back or delayed because of the fight over the filibuster. She elaborated that the new version includes “a provision we were able to get in the House version called the Shield Act, which makes cyber exploitation, intimate image abuse a federal crime.”

“That would be the first time it would be a federal crime,” said Hill. “It’s a big deal, it sends an important message to anyone who is considering sending these pictures or sharing these pictures of someone else, this is absolutely wrong. Not just wrong for you as an individual, but wrong for us as a society and it has to not be normalized anymore.”

“Here in the post #MeToo era, it’s hard to imagine there just not being an appetite to push these measures forward,” said Keilar. It was interesting that the journalist mentioned #MeToo without the context (CNN is big on context) that former staffers for Katie Hill took over her Twitter account just a few months ago to expose what they referred to as a “toxic” environment and “workplace abuse” under Hill, specifically citing the #MeToo movement among the many charges.

“Enough is enough. In order to advance the #MeToo movement, we must be willing to acknowledge the problematic behaviors among those in our own communities. Only then will we see true progress,” they said.

After mentioning #MeToo but not in the context of Hill’s alleged toxic workplace or power-imbalance relationship with a 22-year-old female staffer that was, according to texts, an abusive one, Keilar asked Hill directly about running for office.

“Before I let you go, will you run again?” Keilar asked even more eagerly than her already aggressively admiring demeanor.

After Hill demurred, citing her need to focus on the pending legislation her advocacy group is pushing, Keilar bolstered her case by suggesting that the prospect should be enticing.

“Doesn’t that make you want to get back in the arena?” Keilar thirstily pressed.

“You know, sometimes,” Hill answered. “But sometimes I wonder, you know, maybe my role is more important on the outside. So I’m still definitely on that kind of figuring it out piece.”

“At the same time, we’ve got redistricting happening, and there’s six months probably to go before we really know what these districts are going to look like and what districts are going to be competitive. Mine, the one I ran in before, might not even be a competitive district,” she continued. “So my attention might need to be elsewhere to do what I can to protect the majority. So, I’ve got time to decided, and a lot of legal battles and legal debt to go in the meantime.”

Hill saying “legal debt” was the only mention in the entire interview of the cases she lost suing journalists for exposing the ethics violations that resulted in her resignation after her brief time in Congress. But it’s true the seat may not be competitive.

“We will keep asking. Congresswoman, thank you so much for coming on,” said Keilar, affectionately addressing Hill as “congresswoman.”

“Not a no. Not a no, though. Notably there,” said awkwardly grinning John Berman trying to be a part of it.

Earlier in the segment, in between the discussion about Donald Trump‘s attorney and Keilar’s campaign to start a new Hill campaign, the two discussed Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom Hill said should be removed from committees after a discussion in which she and Keilar acknowledged he denies the so-far unproven allegations of misconduct.

Hill has previously called for her apparently former friend Gaetz to step down if the allegations against him are true.

CNN and New Day have a history of friendliness with the ex-representative from California, and have had her on-air or written about her many times before, during, and after her resignation.

Watch the clips above, via CNN.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.