CNN anchor Kate Bolduan on Tuesday avoided addressing Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds’ claims of Vice President Kamala Harris’ falsehoods, instead shifting focus to former President Donald Trump’s alleged misstatements.
Harris, during the Sept. 10 presidential debate, accused Trump of saying “there will be a bloodbath” if he loses and falsely claimed Trump called white supremacists “fine people” after the 2017 Charlottesville riot. Bolduan, on “CNN News Central,” did not comment on the veracity of Harris’ statements that Donalds mentioned during their conversation discussing potentially dangerous rhetoric, opting instead to highlight Trump’s claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. (RELATED: ‘Criminally Liable’: Springfield Residents Know Exactly Who To Blame For Migrant Crisis Hitting Their Town)
WATCH:
“She lied about Donald Trump’s bloodbath comments. Why does she say that?” Donalds said. “Because she wants to invoke a negative energy around the campaign of Donald Trump, frankly, to affect these undecided voters.”
“Congressman, you and I have gone back and forth a lot about like fact-checking that can happen,” Bolduan said.
Trump asserted at a March rally that there would be a “bloodbath” for auto industry jobs in the U.S. if he is not reelected while railing against companies shifting jobs to other countries during President Joe Biden’s tenure. Numerous media outlets and personalities appeared to interpret Trump’s comments to have a sinister meaning that the former president has denied.
“Kate, can you acknowledge that Kamala Harris lied about the Charlottesville comments again, something that even Snopes has debunked and said is fake news, that it is wrong, that his statements were taken out of context? Those are the direct lies coming from Kamala Harris,” Donalds said. “So if you’re going to talk about the invective put into this campaign, that Kamala Harris and her campaign has done, trying to invoke a negative response from voters in our country versus Donald Trump talking about issues, whether it be in a city or quite frankly, you could bring up Aurora, Colorado, or you could bring up Denver, Colorado, that have been overwhelmed by illegal immigrants in our country. You can’t compare the two.”
Fact-checking website Snopes in June published a correction for Trump’s “very fine people” line used seven years following violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, about taking down a Confederate General Robert E. Lee statue. Democrats alleged Trump called neo-Nazis and white supremacists “very fine people” by taking his statements out of context.
Harris repeated the accusation about Trump’s statements regarding Charlottesville during the debate, but the ABC News moderators did not correct the vice president despite repeatedly fact-checking Trump.
“Congressman, there are lots of things that can be brought up, which is also if you’re talking about lies and you’re talking about comparisons, you can talk about a long list of lies we could walk through it,” Bolduan said. “I don’t think it is to the benefit of voters right now for me to walk through to remind them of the lies that Donald Trump has told in the past. Case in point, eating dogs … and pets, or lots of other things. I want to move on.”
Trump raised concerns regarding unproven allegations of Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, during the recent debate, with residents informing the Daily Caller News Foundation that they have not witnessed such incidents, but that migrants had substantially stressed the town’s resources under the Biden administration.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
