CNN contributor Symone Sanders delivered a hot take for the ages Monday afternoon by insinuating that the FBI let Nikolas Cruz — the accused murderer of 17 Stoneman Douglas High School students — slip through their fingers because they knew he was a white supremacist.
Even if you ignore Sanders’ comments on race, her rant featured a glaring error, namely that Cruz was an avowed member of a white supremacist paramilitary group. That narrative was widely circulated in the aftermath of the shooting but was quickly proven false by multiple media outlets including The Daily Caller. (RELATED: Associated Press Admits It Got Duped By White Nationalist Group Over Cruz Report)
But back to Monday’s highlight.
WATCH:
“All I want to say is had the Parkland shooter been black or brown, we wouldn’t be talking about the times of legislation we could or could not make happen,” Sanders yelled over fellow panelist Paris Dennard. “Because if he was yelling ‘Allah Akbar!’ Congress and the president, they would’ve been tweeting about it and they have swooped in and did whatever they felt was needed.”
“We have a Muslim ban, damnit! There’s a whole Muslim ban,” she continued over Bill Kristol. “I’m not demagoguing anything… I want to be very clear. White supremacists have slipped through the fingers of the FBI. Repeatedly. This is a pattern… What I’m saying is there is s pattern. We cannot ignore a pattern in this country.”
Ultimately, Sanders concluded that “had these been black or brown people that had been training with the paramilitary in Florida, the FBI would have done something about it.”
“Thank you for your passion,” guest host Jim Sciutto added in an attempt to regain control of his panel.