CBS anchor Margaret Brennan on Sunday repeated false accusations suggesting that Donald Trump threatened Liz Cheney, prompting Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to correct the record.
And in the end, Brennan could no longer defend that narrative.
‘You don’t normally give a gun to someone that is going to be facing a firing squad, which is what much of the media made it sound like.’
During an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Rubio argued that Trump is the presidential candidate who will promote safety and security in the U.S. and abroad. Brennan then used Rubio’s assertion to confront him over, in her words, “Donald Trump talking about training guns on the face of Liz Cheney.”
But Rubio was not interested in playing Brennan’s game.
“That’s not what he said,” Rubio told Brennan.
At first, Brennan defended her assertion because, according to her, CBS producers had played a “sound bite” of Trump’s remarks from last Thursday, when he accused Cheney of being a so-called chicken hawk. Notice, though, that CBS played only a sound bite of Trump’s remarks — not the full context.
“Donald Trump doesn’t talk like someone who’s been in Washington for 30 years,” Rubio defended.
“Training guns on her face?” Brennan pushed back.
“He doesn’t say it the way I would have said it, no, but that’s not what he said, Margaret. You guys know that. Come on,” Rubio responded. “I mean, everybody knows exactly what he was saying.”
Instead of acknowledging that Trump was not, in fact, threatening Cheney, Brennan for a third time pushed the media’s false narrative about Trump’s words.
“We played the sound bite,” Brennan said.
For Rubio, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“No, you played a piece of the sound bite, because, in another piece of it, he said he would give her a gun to go stand in conflict as well. You don’t normally give a gun to someone that is going to be facing a firing squad, which is what much of the media made it sound like,” Rubio said. “The point he was making is not a new point. It is a point that has been made by people in both parties for decades. And that is: You’re all for war, and it’s easy to be for war when you’re in some fancy building and you’re safe and sound in Washington, D.C.”
After Rubio made the facts surrounding Trump’s remarks indisputable, Brennan appeared to concede and stopped disagreeing with him.
“Yep,” she said as Rubio continued speaking.
“Let’s see how much you are for war when you yourself get deployed into combat. That’s the point that he was making,” he said. “That he uses language that maybe is not what we typically hear from someone that works at a think tank —”
“Yes,” Brennan affirmed again.
“But I think it’s not just unfair, it’s egregious to see that reported the way that it was,” Rubio continued. “I have never seen such a concerted effort.
“And look, I have always believed there’s bias because no one’s unbiased, but I have never seen such a concerted effort like what I have seen, especially in the last two weeks, among multiple media outlets in this country to, in some cases, breathlessly distort and lie about what’s being said and to create and manufacture these gotcha moments against Donald Trump,” he added. “I have never seen it before. It’s over the top.”
Brennan, unfortunately, did not engage Rubio on his observation about the legacy media. Instead, she shifted the interview to a different topic.
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Marco rubio, Margaret brennan, Cbs news, Legacy media, Donald trump, Election 2024, Media bias, Politics, Media