House Speaker Kevin McCarthy slammed CNN on Monday for selective outrage when government officials “weaponize” their power and access.
McCarthy was speaking about the indictment of Donald Trump for allegedly retaining classified documents and obstructing the government’s attempts to retrieve them. The House speaker claimed “the idea of equal justice is not playing out here.”
Then he set his sights on CNN specifically.
“Now you’re with CNN, right?” McCarthy asked CNN reporter Lauren Fox.
“OK, so let’s talk about this even further, because when somebody weaponizes government and they actually get removed from government, let’s take Andrew McCabe, OK, former –”
“But this is a different case, this is a different set of circumstances, right?” Fox interjected. “I mean, the former president is accused of misleading law enforcement, of a conspiracy of obstructing justice — that’s a different set of facts. Are you prepared to defend him as the former president, and what other actions will the House take in the House Judiciary Committee, in terms of funding?”
Before Fox interrupted, McCarthy was about to ask why CNN hired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired after the DOJ inspector general discovered he leaked sensitive information to the media and then lied about his actions.
“Are you prepared to defend your network’s, CNN’s —” McCarthy said before being interrupted again.
“I’m asking you a question, Mr. Speaker,” Fox interjected.
“I’m answering your question. You could ask me any question you want. … You can’t put words in my mouth,” McCarthy fired back. “Even though your network can hire Andrew McCabe, who was fired from the FBI for leaking classified documents. Did you remove him from your network? No, you continued to put him on to give judgment against President Trump.”
When McCarthy then turned to CNN’s decision to hire former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Fox interrupted him again, repeating her question about FBI funding.
But McCarthy ignored it and made his point about Clapper, who helped spread disinformation about the Hunter Biden laptop.
“Are you prepared to get rid of those people from your network? Because my concern as a policy maker is that when you weaponize government and now you’re weaponizing networks, that is wrong,” he said.
“So we will take all of our power to make sure that the legal system in America gets the blinders back on and people are treated fairly. I have a real problem that your network actually pays people who did classified information and then lied to the American public to try to influence a presidential election and then you put them on your network to give an opinion about a president,” McCarthy added.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!