'You're being willfully inaccurate': CNN panel devolves into chaos over political rhetoric
A CNN panel got heated Tuesday night during a discussion over political rhetoric, as guests shouted over one another, accused each other of misstating the facts and repeatedly talked over one another.
Republican Bryan Lanza, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, asserted on "NewsNight" that a "steady stream" of attacks meant to "dehumanize" former President Donald Trump has contributed to triggering susceptible people.
When he tried to assert that Democrats aren't asked nearly as often as Republicans on the network to denounce "inappropriate" statements, journalist Kara Swisher forcefully pushed back.
Lanza said he appeared on the network following the first assassination attempt against Trump and brought up a statement from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who said he wished "Trump was an actual 'martyr.'"
"They very quickly pivoted away. Like it's no big deal. He's ok to say it if it's Trump," said Lanza, prompting Swisher to but in.
"No one ever said he was ok to say it," she shot back. "That's ridiculous. It's untrue. You're being willfully inaccurate. That is not what happened," she said.
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"It's maybe inconvenient to you to hear what's going on but that's what's happening," Lanza tries to reply, as Swisher talks over him again.
"It's not inconvenient. I criticized him. A lot of people did," she said. "That is absolutely not true."
As the discussion continued, Swisher noted that foreign governments are bombarding Americans with propaganda — and it's "working perfectly on people like you," she said to Lanza.
"We should really start to focus on where this is actually coming from and how we — every one of us — is being manipulated by especially Russia, but China and others," she said, pointing to a recent Justice Department probe into Russia's effort to use right-wing influencers to create "discord and anger within our country."
The discussion became heated a minute later between Republican strategist Scott Jennings and Democratic insider Ashley Allison, after Allison told the group she never called Trump a dictator until "Donald Trump said he would be a dictator on day one."
"That's not what happened, though," interjected Jennings. "That's not what happened. You know that's not what happened!"
A couple of minutes later, the panel devolved again after Lanza argued that Democratic rhetoric is prompting "mentally ill people to take action."
"What is the evidence? What is the evidence that either of these people —" host Abby Phillips tries to ask, as Jennings interrupts, "The guy in Florida?"
Phillips continues, this time posing her question to Jennings.
"What is the evidence that either of these people was motivated by specific speech from Democrats?" she asks referring to the two Trump assassination plots.
Jennings acknowledged that while not much is known about the Pennsylvania shooter, the evidence against the Florida would-be assassin is "pretty evident."
"It's not," shoots back Swisher. "But it's pretty not evident."
Phillips also asked Jennings to provide evidence.
"I mean, do you not read the same things about him that the rest of us do?" asks Jennings. He scoffed when Phillips asked again for evidence that the Florida suspect was motivated by Democratic rhetoric.
"If you want to give them a pass on it, that's fine," he said, prompting Allison to jump in.
"It's not giving them a pass! I just want some consistency, right?!"
The discussion became heated again minutes later after Swisher asked Lanza how many laws he thought exist that restrict the speech of social media tech companies.
When he responds, "hundreds," Swisher fires back: "Zero."
"You literally just said a lot of words, all of which were untrue. There are no laws restricting speech online," said Swisher.
As Lanza tried to respond, Swisher continued on the offensive.
"Literally what you just said was willfully inaccurate," she said.