Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu stopped and corrected Meet The Press’s Kristen Welker multiple times as she pushed Republican talking points about the Hur report.
What Did Kristen Welker Say?
Landrieu said, “Unlike President Trump, which has 91 felony counts pending against him, and by the way, in over all the depositions that President Trump has taken in those cases, that says he doesn’t remember or doesn’t know over a thousand times. So there’s swooning over whether or not the president remembered. The year that his son died and, and therefore is not fit to be president. It’s just really sad and below the belt and unnecessary.”
Welker went into Republican talking points, “Well, just to be very clear, the report didn’t say he wasn’t engaged in any wrongdoing. In fact, it was quite firm in the fact that he mishandled classified documents. He just wasn’t indicted and criminally charged, but let me follow up with you. The documents found in the president’s.”
Landrieu stopped Welker cold, “Wait, wait, no, Kristen, wait, let me. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can’t no, no, no. I’m not going to. I’m not going to accept that premise. In an investigation, a special counsel determines based on the facts and the law about whether somebody engaged in criminal wrongdoing. And he found out that the president did. As a matter of fact, he’s the only special counsel that’s been engaged in this kind of activity that had to say that he could not indict somebody. And that is that is a fact. And so that’s the big takeaway from this report from a legal perspective.”
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Welker backtracked, and tried another lie, “From a legal perspective, that is absolutely right. He said he was not going to indict him. Let me though, ask this question. Because he didn’t have the law on the facts to do it. Right. Well, right. But he did say that classified documents were mishandled. And he said that national security could have been jeopardized.”
Landrieu stopped her again, “But let me, let me ask you this, because the documents, but Kristen, he didn’t say national security. No ma’am. I’m sorry. He didn’t say national security. was compromised and you just, you just heard from the Secretary of Homeland Security, but, but it was not. And the facts and the law suggested that the president was not engaged in criminal activity to be distinguished between the former president, who right now has 91 felony counts pending against him in four different cases. So let’s just keep the facts right. And let’s, let’s not make false comparisons between the two, which unfortunately people do a lot of these days.”
Video:
Wow. Mitch Landrieu pushes back hard on Kristen Welker after Welker suggests Biden endangered national security.
“Let’s just keep the facts right and let’s not make false comparisons between [Biden and Trump], which unfortunately people do a lot of these days.” pic.twitter.com/GoZiGysqmb
â Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2024
The exchange raises the question if Welker read the report, or if she thought that she was being “fair” by asking Landrieu about the Republican claims about the Hur report without identifying that she was pushing Republican talking points.
Landrieu caught Welker making false comparisons between Biden and Trump, and he shut her down with the facts.
Welker left out the fact that the Hur report noted the differences between the Trump and Biden cases and pointed out that Biden was not engaged in criminal activity.
Kristen Welker finally got called out on her catering to the Republican point of view on Meet The Press.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelorâs Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association