CNN’s Brianna Keilar confronted a top House Republican with her own words and voting record Thursday before challenging her attempt to downplay the Iran war’s impact on her party’s disastrous midterm election losses.
The moment came as Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), a House assistant whip, was pressed over her September vote against a resolution to end the war, despite previously predicting the military campaign would be brief. Keilar pointed out that several Republicans had broken with their party to oppose the conflict.
“Do you look at that now as them sounding the alarm?” Keilar asked, noting that four of the seven Republicans who supported the resolution lost their seats Tuesday. “Did Republicans ignore that sentiment at their peril?”
Melliotakis pushed back, but Keilar immediately challenged her.
“I think the Iran war was a small part of this. I don’t think it was the real big piece of this,” she said.
“Exit polls show something different,” the CNN anchor interjected, citing polling indicating that roughly three-quarters of voters considered the war a major issue.
“I don’t know if it was different in your district, but writ large, this was a big issue for voters,” Keilar added.
Malliotakis insisted in the interview Thursday that her New York district viewed the conflict differently as they observed the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but conceded Republicans had underestimated its duration.
“I thought it was going to be a shorter campaign. We were led to believe that it was going to be a shorter campaign,” she said.
Earlier, Keilar had played a March clip of Malliotakis declaring the military operation was “ahead of schedule" and expressing hope that it would not become a long-term conflict.