The ongoing “concerted effort” to manipulate a narrative around the former president found one GOP senator directly confronting corporate media on how they “breathlessly distort and lie.”
(Video Credit: Face the Nation)
The final Sunday before Election Day found Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) at odds with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan as negativity clouded the coverage of former President Donald Trump. From harping on comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s Madison Square Garden line about Puerto Rico to former Ambassador Nikki Haley’s gripe about Trump’s appeal to women, the legislator’s pushback particularly stood out when challenged on the “rifles” story involving former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.
“Well, in terms of safety and security, that sound bite a moment ago from Donald Trump talking about training guns on the face of Liz Cheney, the Trump campaign says-” began Brennan as the senator interjected, “That’s not what he said.”
“-that was about foreign policy. Well, we just played it for our viewers and listeners who heard it. Isn’t it possible to make the case without using rhetoric like that?” continued the host.
As Rubio responded, Brennan took her own chance to cut in pressing about “Training guns on her face?” as her guest said, “But don’t Trump doesn’t talk like someone who’s been in Washington for 30 years. He doesn’t say it the way I would have said it. No, but that’s not what he said, Margaret. You guys know that. Come on. Everybody knows exactly what he was saying. ”
The insistence that “We played the sound bite,” found the Florida politician slamming the selective reporting that left out the context of the president’s remarks, “Yeah, you — no, you played a piece of the sound bite because in another piece of it, he said he would give her a gun to go stand in conflict as well. You don’t normally give a gun to someone that is gonna be facing a firing squad, which is what much of the media made it sound like.”
The clip shared featured Trump saying, “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. Let’s see how she feels about it when the guns are trained on her face.”
As was previously covered, while speaking with Tucker Carlson, the president asserted how Cheney “always wanted to go to war with people” and went on to note “You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building,” a point U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard emphasized when she called out the fellow former congresswoman along with former Vice President Dick Cheney as “cowardly” for hiding “in their ivory towers” while “sending others into harm’s way.”
For his part, Rubio went on to assert, “The point he was making is not a new point. It is a point that has been made by people in both parties for decades, and that is, you’re all for war, and it’s easy to be for war when you’re in some fancy building and you’re safe and sound in Washington, D.C. Let’s see how much you are for war when you yourself get deployed into combat. That’s the point that he was making.”
“That he uses language that maybe is not what we typically hear from someone that works at a think tank, fine. But I think it’s truly, not just unfair, it’s egregious to see that reported the way that it was, along with other things that are out there,” the senator challenged Brennan. “I’ve never seen such a concerted effort — and look, I’ve always believed there’s bias, because no one’s unbiased, but I’ve never seen such a concerted effort like what I’ve seen, especially in the last two weeks, among multiple media outlets in this country to, in some cases, breathlessly distort and lie about what’s being said and to create and manufacture these gotcha moments against Donald Trump. I’ve never seen it before.”
As she pivoted to the next subject, the host tried, “Senator, you are the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee. You also know the former commander-in-chief is not just some guy off the street and words matter,” but the selective sound bite remained and social media users had their own reactions to the “corrupt” media with praise for Rubio’s confrontation on the same network that had aired a completely different cut of Vice President Kamala Harris’ response to a question about Israel.
Thank you @marcorubio for setting this straight! The media is so corrupt!!!
— Morgan (@MarineDV1991) November 3, 2024
Everyone has had it! Thank you Marco for setting this #Democrat operative straight!
— ⚜️⚜️⚜️Kathleen⚜️⚜️⚜️ (@KNP2BP) November 3, 2024
These CBS talking heads are just so awfully biased.
— Bret Weingart (@kbweingart) November 4, 2024
At this point why is any Republican agreeing to appear on CBS? They have many sins to atone for and many retractions to give
— Chuck L (@TXHockeyRef) November 4, 2024
Deface the Nation…it’s what they do best.
— Debbie (@DebbieS0830) November 4, 2024
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