CNN’s Kaitlan Collins faced harsh criticism from conservatives for failing to challenge Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s controversial claims about Donald Trump.
Collins, one of CNN’s rising stars, interviewed Shapiro at Tuesday night’s press conference and asked him about Trump’s claims that anti-Semitism led to him being passed over for Harris’ running mate.
“Donald Trump has absolutely no credibility to speak on that issue,” Shapiro said. “He’s a person who has behaved in a bigoted manner, he’s a person who spreads hate.”
He then addressed Trump’s response to the 2017 Charlottesville riots, saying that Trump’s response to the neo-Nazis chanting “Jews will not replace us” was to say, “There are good people on both sides. There were no good people on either side!”
This claim has been disputed by several fact checkers, including Sniffing And Political factnoting that Trump was referring to neo-Nazis and white nationalists, but to protesters and counterprotesters focused on the original reason for the rally: removing a statue of a Confederate general.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins drew harsh words from conservatives for walking back on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s disputed claims about Donald Trump
The former president’s full comments indicate he may have been referring to those who peacefully protested on both sides of the debate to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
He said, at the same press conference a few days after the riots, that neo-Nazis and white nationalists should be “completely condemned.”
This led many to criticize Collins, a veteran of the conservative Daily Caller newspaper, for his failure to respond to Shapiro’s already disputed claims.
John LeFevre wrote: ‘Here is Governor Josh Shapiro knowingly repeating the Charlottesville lie to paint Donald Trump as a ‘bigot.’ @kaitlancollins – who is quick to hit back at Republicans – does nothing to correct him. This is not journalism.’
Another social media outlet referenced Collins’ appearance on liberal comedian Stephen Colbert’s show earlier this week.
“That’s why the entire Colbert audience laughed when he said CNN is ‘objective.'”
Phillip Terzian added: ‘Our journalistic expectations for @kaitlancollins and her employer are inevitably low: it’s cable TV. But how much longer will this absolute lie be tolerated by people posing as journalists?’
The story has dominated politics since that day in 2017, even kicking off Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
This claim has been disputed by multiple fact-checkers, including Snopes and PolitiFact, who note that Trump was referring to neo-Nazis and white nationalists, but to protesters and counter-protesters who were citing the original reason for the rally: to remove a Confederate statue.
Trump said, during the same press conference a few days after the riots, that neo-Nazis and white nationalists should be “completely condemned”
A reporter questioned Trump about whether he would condemn the neo-Nazis who marched with torches and shouted what sounded like, “Jews will not replace us.”
“I think there’s blame on both sides. If you look at both sides — I think there’s blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about that, and you have no doubt about that. And if you were reporting it accurately, you would say,” Trump said.
The journalist said, “The neo-Nazis started this. They came to Charlottesville to protest.”
Then came Trump’s infamous response: “Excuse me, excuse me. They didn’t throw themselves into the fight — and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people who were very fine people, on both sides.”
Since then, he has been repeatedly misquoted, including claiming that he praised neo-Nazis as “good” or “nice” people.
Biden continued to harp on this even after he dropped out of the presidential race. Among liberals, the quote has become gospel.
In 2019, Trump praised Lee as “one of the great generals” when a reporter asked him to reconsider his 2017 positions as he left the White House to speak to the National Rifle Association in Indianapolis. “People were there to protest the tearing down of the Robert E. Lee monument. Everybody knows that,” he said.
He mentioned the Lee statue in his remarks two years ago, but said both sides were “blaming the larger conflict.”
Biden has continued to harp on this even after dropping out of the presidential race, with the quote becoming gospel among liberals
“If you were to report it correctly, you would say the neo-Nazis started this,” he told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City at the time, but he also said the racists “did not portray themselves as neo-Nazis.”
“You had some very bad people in that group. You had some very fine people on both sides. … I saw the same pictures that you did. You had people in that group who were there to protest the taking down of what was to them a very, very important statue and the renaming of a Robert E. Lee park to a different name.”
The White House claimed at the time that Trump’s praise was limited to the people who came to Charlottesville to advocate for the preservation of the Lee statue.
Trump had said, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists. They should be condemned completely. There were a lot of people in that group, other than the neo-Nazis and white nationalists. The press has been absolutely unfair to them.”
“You had a lot of people in that group who were there to protest innocently and protest very legally. Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me.”
The ensuing clashes between white supremacists organizing a rally and counterprotesters ended with the death of a woman. Neo-Nazi James Fields was sentenced to life in prison for running over Heather Heyer with his car.