'Just let me finish!' Republican lawmaker shut down on CNN as he defends J.D. Vance
A Republican member of Congress who tried to defend Sen. J.D. Vance's admission that he created stories about Haitian immigrants eating pets faced stern rebuke from a fed-up CNN anchor Monday morning.
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) proved unable to convince Kate Bolduan that Vance was justified in spreading false information if it focused the mainstream media's attention on President Joe Biden's immigration policy.
"No, no, no," Bolduan interrupted. "You can talk about this policy without creating stories."
This heated exchange took place one day after Vance told CNN's Dana Bash that he felt obligated to make up stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield despite reports of bomb threats and school evacuations that followed.
"If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do, Dana," Vance said.
While Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called Vance and Trump's spreading of conspiracy theories "garbage" and called on the pair to stop attacking people legally in his state, Emmer argued Vance had a point.
"This story is actually about a program and illegal program," Emmer said.
Bolduan snapped back, "It's technically legal."
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"If you don't want to talk about the Cuba, Haitians, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan program created by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, which brought tens of thousands of migrants to this country ..." Emmer said, only to be cut off by Bolduan again.
"There are two colleges that are shut down, they're going remote today, because of concerns over the environment it has created around this," Bolduan said. "No one locally wants this to continue. Seems a problem for you guys."
"The problem is the mainstream media refuses to report what caused this problem," answered Emmer. "The American people need to know ... just let me finish!"
Bolduan had indeed cut in to assert her opinion that Vance should admit he got the rhetoric wrong before moving on to a policy-based attack.
But when Emmer tried to pivot to policy, Bolduan came back to the story.
"If this story of eating pets is completely factually wrong and is not true, you are okay with the story continuing and your candidate continuing to talk about it?" she asked.
"I hope you start reporting on the problem that causes all of this," he replied.
"Congressman" Bolduan said, "the inability to answer yes or no on this simple question kinda takes away the heft of wanting to talk about the policy."