Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli called out CNN host Kasie Hunt on Sunday for airing a deceptively edited video clip of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
On “State of the Union,” Hunt claimed that DeSantis described Trump supporters as “listless vessels” in a recent interview, suggesting that DeSantis had disparaged them by implying they do not think for themselves. Hunt then played a clip of those remarks.
In response, Cuccinelli called out CNN for having spliced together two parts of the interview to make DeSantis sound like he was attacking Trump supporters.
“Everybody just saw there that there was a cut. You cut from the beginning of that quote to the ‘listless vessels,'” Cuccinelli protested. “You just did what the problem is. So, everybody who just watched that, understand, go read the transcript, and it is not correct.”
Hunt was clearly annoyed that Cuccinelli detected the edited video.
“OK, fine. So, you summarize for us: What was it that he was trying to say?” she fired back.
DeSantis, according to Cuccinelli, was saying the election “should be about America, not about individuals,” telling Hunt to read the “entire paragraph” of DeSantis’ remarks to understand the context of the “listless vessels” phrase.
“I mean, there’s a pretty big gap in your cut,” he said. “So he’s talking about some of the folks in D.C. who’ve endorsed Trump. He’s talking about the more general environment and referring to all of us collectively. We can’t just sit back and take all of this — be listless vessels. We have to move ahead with a different vision that was not Trump-assigned.
“Folks, go read the transcript,” he added. “You don’t have to listen to me. You go read it yourself.”
‘Everybody Saw!’ Cuccinelli Calls Out CNN for ‘Problem’ Edit of DeSantis ‘Listless Vessels’ Clipwww.youtube.com
Donald Trump’s campaign lashed out at DeSantis over the weekend for the “listless vessels” remark, comparing it to Hillary Clinton’s infamous description of Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”
DeSantis, however, was clearly saying that the Republican Party should be united behind principles — not a single leader.
Here is what DeSantis said in full:
So there will be people who are huge Trump supporters, like in Congress, who have incredibly liberal left-wing records that is really just atrocious, and yet they’re viewed by some of these folks as, like, really, really good. Then you have other people, you know, like a Congressman Chip Roy, who has endorsed me, Congressman Thomas Massie. These guys have records of principle fighting the swamp that are second to none. And yet they will be attacked by some of these people and called RINOs. So it’s just been totally detached from any type of substance. And ultimately, a movement can’t be about the personality of one individual. The movement has got to be about what are you trying to achieve on behalf of the American people. And that’s got to be based in principle. Because if you’re not rooted in principle, if all we are is listless vessels that are just supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on Truth Social every morning, that’s not going to be a durable movement.
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