Politics

Breitbart Editor Claims CNN Misrepresented Private Comment For Article

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The editor-in-chief of Breitbart’s London branch claimed a CNN article on internal Breitbart communications misrepresented one of his comments that referred to Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer as “collusion.”

CNN obtained and then published internal Breitbart communications in the aftermath of the revelation that Don Jr. met a Russian-connected lawyer expecting dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.

Someone on Breitbart’s Slack channel — a messaging app — apparently passed a handful of messages over to CNN reporter Oliver Darcy, who led his story with a comment from Breitbart London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam.

“So like, this is straight up collusion,” Kassam is reported as saying. “Right?” Darcy wrote that Kassam’s comment showed he “reacted to the story of Donald Trump Jr.’s newly-released emails in a way that wouldn’t typically be expected from someone at the far-right outfit, which is a reliable supporter of President Trump.”

Kassam disagreed with the way CNN portrayed his comment in an emailed statement to The Daily Caller.

“CNN took a tongue in cheek question, in a private context and setting, and isolated one line to make it look like a statement of fact or judgement,” he said. “Frankly, it speaks to their penchant for fake news that they’d do this, and I’m flattered they place such a high value on my sardonic questions.”

Kassam also said that CNN did not reach out to him for comment regarding his message. Darcy’s story noted that he reached out to a Breitbart spokesperson, who declined to comment, “for a response from the outlet and from the participants in the conversation.” Darcy declined to comment on the record for this story.

A Slack message from Breitbart’s Washington editor, Matthew Boyle was also featured in the CNN story. Boyle downplayed the Don Jr. story.

“I mean I don’t take this as a smoking gun at all,” Boyle was quoted as saying. “This is silly.” (RELATED: Trump Jr.: ‘In Retrospect…I Would Have Done Things A Little Differently’)

The only two other Breitbart employees quoted in the article were senior editor Rebecca Mansour — who is quoted as saying, “Wow” — and deputy politics editor Amanda House, who wrote, “???????”

Darcy claimed that Breitbart’s internal messages were “emblematic of a larger sense of confusion that appeared to grip much of the pro-Trump media following the bombshell release of the Donald Trump Jr. emails.”

 

This article has been updated to reflect Kassam’s comments.