‘Peacefully protesting’? CNN talker uses infamous phrase as footage of Minnesota violence plays
“CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip allowed a former Biden administration official to claim riots in Minneapolis were a “peaceful protest” Wednesday night.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a Wednesday night post on X that an agent from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot an illegal immigrant from Venezuela after being ambushed. Former Biden White House aide Daniel Koh claimed that the response in the streets of Minneapolis was “peaceful,” despite Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara saying crowds were engaged in “unlawful acts.”
“It looks like an insurrection?” Kmele Foster asked Seattle-area radio talk show host Jason Rantz, who responded, “I’m answering the question here. You don’t think they’re showing up because they want to do damage?”
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“They’re peacefully protesting in a response to a woman who was shot in the face,” Koh claimed.
Phillip did not correct Koh, even though, earlier in the program, CNN reporter Whitney Wild said during an on-air report from Minneapolis she was having trouble breathing due to the tear gas and flash-bangs being used.
“We are near 23rd and Lyndale. It’s not exact location, but we’re a couple blocks away,” Wild told Phillip. “Sorry. It’s a little hard to breathe because they just let off several flashbangs, multiple tear gas canisters that were coming off all around us. And at one point it became so foggy that my producer, Meredith Edwards, and I got separated from our photographer, Jonathan Shearer.”
“If you need to move or relocate, please do, stay safe while you are out there,” Phillip told Wild.
The network was mocked after it claimed that riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin during the summer of 2020 following the shooting of Jacob Blake were “fiery but mostly peaceful” in a chyron. Phillip cut in when Republican strategist Brad Todd outlined multiple options to peacefully protest.
“There are a lot of — we‘ve been — we‘ve been in this country now in the midst of protests of all forms for a long time. We have seen protests in this country that, no, don’t stop at a letter to the editor. Okay?” Phillip said. “You see, in the history of this country, peaceful, justified protests in which people put their lives and their bodies on the line. They leave their homes, they go and do something that officials tell them is unlawful, sitting at a segregated counter, crossing a bridge. People have been doing that in this country for a long time.”
“First off, you can’t interfere with federal law enforcement activity and it’s a violation of the Minnesota state law if your interference with that activity causes someone who’s guilty of something, who are being pursued, to get away,” Todd responded after some back-and-forth with Phillip.
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