House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took a CNN reporter behind the woodshed Monday afternoon in an encounter in a Capitol hallway.
The reporter made the mistake of asking the Speaker to give his opinion on the controversial federal indictment of former President Donald Trump.
As McCarthy rightly declared, “I have a real problem that your network actually pays people who did classified information and then lied to the American people to try to influence a presidential election, and then you put them on your network to give an opinion about [the] president.”
He explained to the overmatched journalist that “equal justice” is not being served in the case of the former president.
When asked about defending Trump, McCarthy shot back and asked if the reporter was prepared to defend her employer. After all, CNN hired disgraced former deputy FBI chief Andrew McCabe and ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
McCarthy just LIT UP this CNN reporter about them hiring McCabe and Clapper after they leaked classified information and interfered in 2020 pic.twitter.com/JyZg171M0z
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 12, 2023
Both of these mouthpieces face numerous accusations of misusing their positions.
As McCarthy noted, CNN gave these unreliable sources a platform to spew their opinions on Trump even though they were hardly credible experts.
Besides noting that McCabe was dumped by the FBI, the Republican Speaker pointed out that Clapper was one of dozens of former intelligence officials who signed off on the bureau’s effort to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story.
This came in the weeks immediately before the 2020 presidential election, and the effort by these officials has been roundly debunked by experts.
McCarthy pulled no punches in asking if CNN would purge these sources from its payroll. “Because my concern as a policymaker is that when [you] weaponize government, and now you’re weaponizing networks, that’s wrong.”
Trump was indicted last week on 37 federal criminal counts related to handling of classified materials found in his Florida home. McCarthy previously called the legal action a “dark day.”
Also last week, he termed it “unconscionable” for a president to indict their chief rival in the coming election. Especially considering that “Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades.”
McCarthy added that every American who stands by the rule of law is in Trump’s corner against this “grave injustice.” He also vowed that House Republicans will not submit to “this brazen weaponization of power.”
