Speaking with reporters on Monday, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy blasted CNN for their hypocrisy — as the network condemns former President Donald Trump for supposedly mishandling classified documents while they are perfectly fine with hiring disgraced individuals like former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Despite charging Trump for holding supposedly classified documents in a secure room at his Mar-a-Lago home, the DOJ has thus far refused to charge other individuals who mishandled classified information — like President Joe Biden.
Joe Biden was withholding 1,850 boxes of classified document from when he served as VP with no declassification authority.
He had boxes at the University of Delaware.
He had boxes in Chinatown, DC.
He had boxes in Pennsylvania.
He had boxes in his wide open garage in…
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 9, 2023
While Trump was president and had the ability to declassify documents and possess them, Biden was illegally storing classified documents in multiple unsecure locations from his time as vice president and senator — neither of which are positions that would have allowed him to declassify or bring classified documents to his home or office. Many critics have blasted the FBI and DOJ, arguing that the agencies are “weaponized” and “politicized” for their continued persecution of Trump and other Republicans. McCarthy echoed this criticism in a statement on Friday.
“In America, some of our greatest strength is equal justice, and today it shows that it is not,” he said. “But what’s even worse upon this — this is a leading contender to run for office with an administration of a current president that has the exact same documents. Even worse from the aspect [that] there are documents that President Biden has that he had when he was a senator.”
In the hallway of the U.S. Capitol on Monday, CNN reporter Lauren Fox attempted to corner McCarthy about Trump’s indictment. Instead of falling for the trap, the House Speaker turned the conversation around and lectured the CNN reporter about her network’s hypocrisy — as they are fine with hiring individuals who have actually leaked classified information. Fox repeatedly interrupted him while he trying to make his point.
“You’re with CNN, right? OK, so let’s talk about this even further because when somebody weaponizes government and they actually get removed from government — let’s take Andrew McCabe, OK…” McCarthy began.
“This is a different set of circumstances, right?” Fox interrupted. “I mean, the former president is accused of misleading law enforcement, of a conspiracy of obstructing justice. That’s a different set of facts. Are you prepared to defend him as the former president, and what other actions will the House take, in the House Judiciary Committee, in terms of funding?”
Before being interrupted, McCarthy was attempting to ask why CNN hired McCabe, who was fired after the DOJ inspector general discovered that he had leaked sensitive information to the media and subsequently lied about his actions.
“Are you prepared to defend your network’s, CNN’s —” McCarthy said before being interrupted again.
“I’m asking you a question, Mr. Speaker,” the CNN reporter interrupted.
“I’m answering your question. You could ask me any question you want. … You can’t put words in my mouth,” McCarthy continued. “Even though your network can hire Andrew McCabe, who was fired from the FBI for leaking classified documents. Did you remove him from your network? No, you continued to put him on to give judgment against President Trump.”
McCarthy then attempted to bring up CNN’s decision to hire Clapper, who helped to spread disinformation about the Hunter Biden laptop story, but Fox once again interrupted him with her question about FBI funding. The House Speaker ignored her interruption and asked her: “Are you prepared to get rid of those people from your network? Because my concern as a policy maker is that when you weaponize government and now you’re weaponizing networks, that is wrong.”
“So we will take all of our power to make sure that the legal system in America gets the blinders back on and people are treated fairly. I have a real problem that your network actually pays people who did classified information and then lied to the American public to try to influence a presidential election and then you put them on your network to give an opinion about a president,” McCarthy added.
McCarthy just LIT UP this CNN reporter about them hiring McCabe and Clapper after they leaked classified information and interfered in 2020 pic.twitter.com/JyZg171M0z
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 12, 2023
