CNN’s Keilar Responds to Criticism That She Interviews Trump Officials: You Can’t ‘Ignore BS, You’ve Got to Shovel It’

CNN’s Brianna Keilar delivered a retort to those who’ve criticized her for holding interviews with President Donald Trump’s campaign supporters and surrogates on her show.

On Wednesday’s installment of CNN Newsroom, Keilar fact-checked the claim among Trump supporters that Nevada’s universal mail-in voting plan is proof that the mail-in voting process perpetuates mass voter fraud. This topic was frequently brought before Keilar on Tuesday as she held an explosive interview with Trump 2020 campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp.

Keilar explained that Schlapp was “cynically misrepresenting” the impact of mail-in votes yesterday, dissecting the process by which those votes are accounted for in elections nationwide. She also argued that the Trump administration “hamstrung” the postal service by cutting funding and mismanaging their office during the coronavirus pandemic.

As Keilar continued to counter Schlapp’s various voter fraud claims, she eventually switched gears and said “I want, at this moment, to address criticism that I have often heard.”

I hear it a lot, from President Trump’s critics, and this includes viewers who ask why we talk to Trump campaign officials when they say things that are verifiably false like we just showed you, or they ask why we cover things the president says when they aren’t true.

Well, he is the sitting president running for re-election. He is one of two people from whom voters will choose to run the country. I hear the critics say that the media — by covering untrue statements that he and his supporters make — they’re giving life to lies.

I’ve thought a lot about this but I have to disagree. We have to challenge lies, we have to challenge falsehoods and conspiracy theories. If you don’t, they fester, unchecked and unchallenged. You cannot just ignore BS, you’ve got to shovel it.

Watch above, via CNN.

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