Rep. Mark Meadows made two mistakes Sunday morning. First, he agreed to appear on CNN. Second, he told CNN’s Dana Bash that she was a “good journalist.”
He probably regretted both mistakes, but after Sunday’s episode of “State of the Union,” there was certainly no room for doubt that Dana Bash is not a good journalist.
In fact, within the course of a minute during the interview, Bash lied twice. First she cut off Meadows from talking about how Rep. Jerry Nadler changes the rules on impeachment by claiming that she would ask Nadler about that issue. She didn’t ever bring it up with Nadler, and she didn’t press Nadler hard about anything, despite telling Meadows she would do so.
But worst of all was when she interrupted Meadows to tell him that President Trump said he held up aid to Ukraine when he talked to President Zelensky during their famous phone call in July.
Meadows quickly jumped in and informed her that she was wrong. He asked her to read the transcript and find any such claim by President Trump. Bash tried to deflect to the testimony of hearsay witnesses from the State Department, but Meadows returned her to the transcript.
“Is there anything about aid in that phone call?” he asked Bash.
“He talked about assistance,” Bash claimed. “He talked about assistance.”
“Yes or no?” Meadows continued.
“He talked about assistance. He talked about assistance,” Bash said, apparently on the theory that the more times you repeat a lie the more people will believe it.
“He didn’t say anything about aid. You know that! Tell the people the truth.”
Bash then deflected to another question. “First of all, that’s not true, but I don’t want to continue to have a debate with you.”
Of course she didn’t want to continue to have a debate about the facts, because she was wrong! President Trump did not talk about aid in the phone call, although President Zelensky said Ukraine wanted to buy more Javelins. And President Trump certainly did not say he “held up aid” to Ukraine as Bash claimed.
Moreover, if you went back to when Meadows called Bash a “good journalist,” it was just after she told another lie, claiming that Zelensky had never said there was “no pressure” put on him by President Trump. As Meadows noted, anyone can Google it to find out the truth. If they do, they will find out Bask lied again.
CNN: The most trusted name in Fake News.
WHO WE ARE
Frank Miele has spent four decades in the news business and now offers conservative commentary to counter the left-wing bias in the national media. If you enjoy reading these daily essays, I hope you will consider purchasing one of my books. They are available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle editions. My new book — “The Media Matrix: What if everything you know is fake?” — shows that Fake News has been around for years. The “Why We Needed Trump” trilogy tackles the politics of the last two decades: Part 1 is subtitled “Bush’s Global Failure: Half Right.” Part 2 is “Obama’s Fundamental Transformation: Far Left.” Part 3 is “Trump’s American Vision: Just Right.” Also consider subscribing to Heartland Diary on YouTube by clicking here for News Every Conservative Can Use.
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