CNN host Brianna Keilar responded Friday to criticism from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson over CNN’s coverage of Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Keilar said that Carlson was “having a harder time” understanding that it was an “insurrection,” “sedition” and that it was “incited by the President.” (RELATED: CNN Anchor Blasts Democratic Leaders For Hypocrisy)
Carlson criticized CNN during Thursday’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” claiming that the network “unveiled a Soviet-style enemies list to make it a little easier to find all those Trump supporters and then destroy them.”
“The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol? It wasn’t insurrection,” the Daily Caller co-founder said. “It was a political protest that got completely out of control as we said before because the president recklessly encouraged it, and that is wrong. But it was not an insurrection.”
The events at the Capitol have been described by many as an insurrection, including Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who condemned the riot in a speech Wednesday, saying, “It’s not protest. It’s insurrection.”
“Don’t take his word for it. Don’t take mine,” said Keilar. “It was an insurrection. Take Merriam Webster’s word for it.”
“Since this guy pretends not to understand big words in a truthful context, let’s use pictures,” Keilar added before showing numerous images on screen of the people participating in the riots.
“This was an armed uprising. They were armed with anything they could get their hands on, and that included guns and other weapons, which the D.C. Police chief said were recovered from the capitol complex.” Keilar said as the images scrolled.
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who announced his resignation Thursday, said in a statement that officers were attacked with “metal pipes” as well as “chemical irritants,” and that people used “other weapons against our officers.”
Keilar went on to attack Carlson over his views on “systemic racism” and “white privilege” before saying it was “fantastical” to think that non-white people would be treated the same way that the crowds were Wednesday.
She also referenced Carlson’s previous arguments “against the tearing down of Confederate statues.”
“He said, quote, ‘a country is the sum total of its history, good and bad.’ He said, quote, ‘eliminating the past leaves us unable to say who we are.’ Well he’s trying to eliminate the present, and he is spoon-feeding it to millions of hungry viewers who tune into his show,” Keilar continued. “‘Healthy societies do not destroy their own history,’ he said last summer, but what he didn’t cop to is that he is part of the illness, a propagandist, a liar, a parasite.”