CNN host Brianna Keilar has earned widespread popularity for her searing, detailed breakdowns of misinformation peddled by President Donald Trump and Fox News.
Thursday was no different when Keilar addressed the dueling town halls between Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The town halls—on two different networks in the exact same time slots—were held in lieu of a debate after Trump refused to debate Biden virtually, despite testing positive for the virus that's killed over 200 thousand Americans.
This led Keilar to embark on a detailed breakdown of Trump's past remarks regarding debates in both 2016 and 2020—especially excoriation of the moderator, and claims that his opponents are taking performance enhancing drugs.
She went on to detail what Trump does when proven wrong—and how the conservative Fox News network amplifies his baseless attacks.
Watch below.
Instead of the originally scheduled presidential debate, tonight there will be dueling town halls with President Trump and Joe Biden. @brikeilarCNN explores Trump's past excuses surrounding debates. #RollTheTape pic.twitter.com/t5ZzLLsC6m
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) October 15, 2020
Keilar said:
"The format and rules have pretty much remained the same for the last 30+ years, through eight elections. The only reason they're contemplating a change now is because of the President's behavior, interrupting his opponent at a feverish and unproductive pace. But of course, it's not just the format."
She went on to address Trump's repeated attacks against the Commission on Presidential Debates, which he claims are biased against Republicans:
"The Commission is, and has long been, made up of both Republicans and Democrats, and the commission's current chairman was chairman of the RNC for six years. But even then, the blame always seems to turn to the moderator."
Keilar highlighted clips of Trump berating moderators of his past debates, such as Fox News' Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace, as well as CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Then, Keilar noted Trump's further excuses, such as baseless claims of microphone failure, drug usage by his opponents, and other lies.
She also called out Fox News' amplification of the bogus claims.
"It is a cynical, cynical strategy. The President and his allies push and push conspiracy theories and misinformation. They repeat them ad nauseam so that millions of viewers just end up adopting it as fact."
Keilar continued:
"But what's funny about the President and his enabling propagandists at Fox, when it's time to pay up, when they are proven to be wrong, there's no apology, they just drop it. Like their absurd predictions never even happened, and then they move on to the next bogus BS that they cycle on repeat."
People applauded her takedown of both Trump and the network that enables him.
This lady just has no f*cks to give for the nonsense. Truth teller. https://t.co/qWZLMR83Ax
— Hank "The Fly Wrangler" Epton (@HankEpton) October 15, 2020
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 https://t.co/zbQg2XWjCG
— Lola 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🏳️🌈 🌊 (@lollanna) October 15, 2020
Damn, she described @Fox News perfectly. @HowardKurtz @BretBaier @ChrisStirewalt @HARRISFAULKNER @ErikWemple @1035WVOC https://t.co/WD3OvJW9xP
— G. (@friendlyinsc) October 15, 2020
Excellent job, Brianna!👏🏻 https://t.co/YHfCeAqNIk
— Betty Tomek (@maggielib5) October 16, 2020
This is exactly what we're up against. CNN anchor, Brianna Keilar nails it. Trump and his propagandist/advocates are peddling more than lies, they are pushing dangerous conspiracy theories designed to harm American people. We must vote Trump out. @WhiteHouse @GOP @DNC https://t.co/0HWMTRHYmt
— TheResistance! AnaTrueBLUE💙 (@AmericaResists) October 16, 2020
People are growing weary of Trump's constant conspiracy theories.
This isn't hard:
QAnon is a crazy, dangerous, fringe conspiracy theory. I denounce it.
Trump refuses to say the same — simply because most of its followers support him.
Worse, Trump amplifies QAnon, which can lead to real world consequences and violence.
Enough already.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) October 16, 2020
Trump retweeted an absurd, obviously false conspiracy theory, got shamed on national TV for it, then followed that up by getting fooled by satire. The chain of events demonstrated how his truth barometer is completely shattered. https://t.co/XffNDxS49a
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2020
The Navy SEAL who killed bin Laden (and who supports President Trump) has some thoughts on the deranged conspiracy theory the president is pushing this week. https://t.co/Sy1A4zUEtT
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 14, 2020
The presidential election is on November 3, but early voting has begun in at least 40 states.