‘Don’t Mess With My Family’: CNN’s Brianna Keilar Burns Mercedes Schlapp for Op-Ed ‘Riddled With Lies’ Attacking Her Husband

Sarah RumpfAug 6th, 2020, 6:30 pm
 

CNN’s Brianna Keilar had a “major-league slugfest” of an interview with Trump campaign senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp on Tuesday, and Schlapp fired back with an op-ed attacking Keilar and the network — as well as Keilar’s husband. But Schlapp apparently didn’t get her facts straight before writing her commentary, and Keilar is now returning fire.

The original interview, as covered by Mediaite, featured Keilar and Schlapp locking horns over President Donald Trump‘s recent flip-flop on the issue of mail-in ballots. After weeks of insisting that voting by mail created major risks of fraud (an accusation for which he never provided evidence), Trump suddenly reversed course and began saying that mail-in ballots in Florida were just fine.

Various Trump spokespeople have attempted to reframe his 180-degree spin this week and universally failed. Keilar found Schlapp’s efforts unconvincing, at one point telling her she was “saying a bunch of crap.” (Schlapp didn’t fare much better in an interview later that day with Fox News’ Sandra Smith, but Smith didn’t find herself the target of an angry op-ed today).

Thursday, an op-ed titled “CNN’s Dishonesty on Universal Vote-by-Mail” by Schlapp was published at Real Clear Politics, in which Schlapp slammed CNN and Keilar for “[d]ismissing any concerns about the integrity of America’s electoral process,” which she called “a danger to our system of democracy.”

Schlapp complained for several paragraphs about Nevada’s law regarding voting by mail — a tactic Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis attempted on Mediaite founder Dan Abrams‘ SiriusXM radio program Wednesday — claiming it was a “system [that] exposes the election to massive voter fraud.” Schlapp then took issue with Keilar’s assertions about the Nevada law, calling her “factually wrong.”

Partisan political arguments over what issues are important and squabbles over fact checks are nothing new in the world of cable news, but the final paragraphs in Schlapp’s op-ed are what drew Keilar’s ire, attacking her husband:

I have dealt with, and socialized with, mainstream journalists in Washington, D.C., for my entire career. Sometimes we agree, often we don’t. But I respect the work the best of them do, and the critical role a free press plays in society. But this episode at CNN, and the host’s continued online harangue, was beyond the pale. I was further disturbed to learn that Brianna Keilar’s husband is a ferocious opponent of the president, a former director of the National Security Council under President Obama, and a man who tweets, among other things, that Donald Trump makes him “throw up.”

A modicum of journalistic integrity would require this disclosure by CNN on the selection of a nonpartisan interviewer, or at least one who commits to a fair and respectful exchange.

In truth, the collapse of a fair and spirited journalistic exchange may be as dangerous to democracy as the promotion of unfettered electoral fraud.

Keilar shot back on Twitter shortly before 5 pm ET, calling the op-ed “riddled with lies,” and saying that the “most despicable” part was her attempt to “character assassinate my husband, an active duty military officer, and mistaking him for someone else in the process.”

According to Keilar, Schlapp mistook some other person’s Twitter account for her husband and wrongly blamed him for it. She also took issue with Schlapp’s criticism that he was a former director of the National Security Council for former President Barack Obama, noting that he continued in that role in the Trump administration, even being promoted.

“Get your facts straight,” concluded Keilar. “And don’t mess with my family.”

Several other journalists noticed Schlapp’s mistake, including New York Times’ White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, and Keilar’s CNN colleague Jake Tapper, who openly pondered if Schlapp and Real Clear Politics would “retract and apologize for falsely smearing an active duty Green Beret?”

Schlapp has yet to respond to Keilar’s tweet, but her husband, American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp did, throwing more petty insults and snark about CNN “covering for socialism,” but not addressing the inaccuracies Keilar mentioned.

 

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law & Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Bluesky and Threads.