CNN anchor Brianna Keilar sparred with Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen over the media’s coverage of former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
Democrats attempted to get Lewandowski to shed light on one of the 10 instances Robert Mueller identified as potential obstruction of justice on the part of President Trump. However, he appeared confrontational and refused to answer most questions.
All three cable news networks aired his testimony, but none of them aired the entire spectacle, which went on for hours. One of the more notable parts of Lewandowski’s testimony occurred while House Judiciary Counsel Barry Berke got him to admit that he feels as though he has “no obligation to have a candid conversation with the media.”
None of the networks were still airing the testimony when the revelation was made, and that was the schism that started the sparring during Cohen’s Wednesday appearance on CNN.
“What’s more necessary” than Berke questioning Lewandowski first “is that the news media cover the whole hearing,” Cohen argued. “The news media covered the beginning.”
[Read more: ‘Are you a journalist?’: Lewandowski erupts at CNN anchor]
“The news media covered quite a bit of this hearing, as you know,” Keilar countered. “This was very long, six hours long. Knowing as you do as well about what you would want to emphasize, and this is the case in anything, don’t you put the good stuff up front? So why wouldn’t you consider a different approach for a witness who’s going to be very different?”
The congressman pushed back and said, “Barry Burke was strong, but I do think the media should have covered it. And of course, as it turned out, it shows the fact that he thought lying to the media was not consequential, and he did it all the time because he said the media lies.”
“I am going to take issue with that because the media did cover this, and that sound bite which Barry Burke was able to bring out from Lewandowski has been all over television everywhere today,” Keilar responded.
