Unhinged CNN Reporter Alludes to Fist Fight After Sarah Huckabee Sanders Shuts Her Down
CNN may have just sunk to a new low. After a heated exchange with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday, one of the cable network’s reporters appeared on Don Lemon’s program to discuss it… and ended up essentially accusing Sanders of inciting a fist fight.
The kerfuffle started when CNN journalist April Ryan put words in Sanders’ mouth during a press briefing. While discussing recent comments made by Rudy Giuliani regarding Donald Trump, the reporter began verbally clashing with the woman at the podium.
“You said yourself you were blindsided (by Giuliani’s comments),” Ryan declared to Sanders.
“I actually didn’t use that term,” Sanders replied, according to Independent Journal Review.
The CNN employee admitted that she, not Sanders, was using that word, and then tried to make the press secretary own it.
“Well, I said it. But you were blindsided from what you said,” Ryan insisted.
Putting words into somebody else’s mouth, even after corrected, is generally considered to be pretty rude… so it’s no surprise that Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not pleased.
“With all due respect, you actually don’t know much about me in terms of what I feel and what I don’t,” Sanders said. “I think we’re done.”
In the world of CNN, politely but firmly ending a conversation is the same thing as asking for a fist fight — at least that’s what Ryan implied when she discussed the incident later that day.
“If she’s upset about (my question) then that’s fine, I understand people in the White House are very upset,” Ryan told Don Lemon. “But what I will say to you is that … for her to say … ‘you don’t know me,’ in certain quarters in this nation that starts a physical fight.”
It’s worth noting that Sanders never said “you don’t know me.” In fact, she said “you actually don’t know much about me in terms of what I feel.” So two times in the same day, a professional CNN reporter — April Ryan — was unable to get even basic quotes correct and put words in another woman’s mouth.
At the same time, it’s extremely bizarre for a grown woman with a career to imply that “you don’t know me” is a prelude to a physical fight, even if Sanders had said it. Apparently Ryan is unable to distinguish the White House press room from a back alley in the Bronx.
CNN’s April Ryan on Sarah Sanders:
“To say ‘you don’t know me’ — in certain quarters in this nation that starts a physical fight.”
I’m sorry, did she just imply that Sarah Sanders wanted to fight her? https://t.co/M82RhHiDRy pic.twitter.com/mk7bIizzZI
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) May 4, 2018
The way Ryan tells it, she was ready to go to blows because Sanders dared correct her on a false quote.
“That you don’t know me stuff begins fist fights,” the CNN reporter insisted again on Twitter. “She needs to know what she is saying.”
Perhaps somebody should explain to her that no, actually, saying “you don’t know me” doesn’t begin fist fights when it’s two adults talking inside the White House. There’s something we call “civility” that most professional adults believe in; perhaps she could look it up in a dictionary.
This strange exchange seems to be yet another attempt by CNN to smear the president and make his staff look as bad as possible.
By exaggerating a minor verbal spat and pretending that a violent street fight was about to break out, Ryan and Lemon may have hooked the viewers, but they disregarded truth and reality in the process.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
