CNN Headline News host S.E. Cupp was disgusted with the idea that a panel's conversation turned to questioning the legitimacy of whether Jan. 6 was a conspiracy from the FBI.
The conversation began with Republicans like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) adopting the language of Donald Trump about his supporters in prison for violence against the U.S. Capitol as "hostages," akin to those kidnapped in Israel by Hamas. Republican Party leaders have since adopted the language.
CNN's Jim Acosta asked former White House counsel John Dean about a recent poll showing that nearly one-third of Republicans believe that the FBI organized the Jan. 6 attack.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has refrained from attacking Trump as much as possible, told CNN's Jake Tapper that he takes the FBI at their word that they did not instigate the riot. He heralded the agents he said have worked to bring over 1,000 of the attackers to justice.
"John, a lot of what Trump does out on the campaign trail, you know — it's almost like the courtroom has become the campaign trail, and the campaign trail has become the courtroom for Donald Trump," said Acosta. "He goes out there, and he talks about the FBI and so on, but I just wonder, you know, from your standpoint, does the cold hard reality of his actions, does he finally get confronted with them do you think this year? We are in a new year, and is that going to happen? What is your sense?"
Dean said that it doesn't appear Trump wants to confront reality and doubts he will.
"It appears his style of leadership, and his followers don't want to confront reality," continued Dean. "You know, Jim, the clearest evidence that the FBI is not behind this is there have been hundreds upon hundreds of trials of these individuals."
That's when Cupp stepped in.
"We should not even give this a second's word of our breath," she said. "It's so absurd and looney, and as John says, it's demonstrative, provably false. A lot of these people pled guilty. Admitted what they did. We should not even give it the credibility that we are in this segment, talking about whether it may or may not be true. It is not true, and it's a conspiracy theory meant to cloak the reality of what happened."
Acosta stepped in
"It's not debatable for us," he clarified.
"We do not have to push it!" Cupp explained.
"I don't know. I have done everything but have a sandwich board over my chest, you know. I mean, you know, you are not getting anything from us in terms of giving this any legitimacy whatsoever," Acosta said.
They went on to discuss some of Trump's comments about the Civil War being an easy negotiation and that he finds it "so fascinating" and "I'm so attracted to seeing it."
See the moment in the video below or at the link here.
Host knocks CNN live on air for even mentioning the Jan. 6 conspiraciesyoutu.be
