CNN host Kate Bolduan on Monday refrained from challenging a bizarre theory from a guest that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell benefited from “cheating” to win his re-election bid last month.
Bolduan was filling in on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” and one of her guests was retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Newsbusters reported.
Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell during the administration of President George W. Bush, spent a portion of his time on the program lashing out at those who contend November’s presidential election was marred by election fraud and other irregularities.
The retired colonel particularly attacked President Donald Trump, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon while summarizing the president’s fight for election integrity as “desperate.”
“I think we’re seeing just how desperate Trump is becoming himself and how desperate the last remaining rats on the ship, if you will, are becoming because of that,” he said. “We see Bannon apparently coming back on scene again, probably most ardently seeking a pardon.
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“We see things like you just pointed out, General Flynn — I don’t know, if I were in charge of the military, if I were the chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] or if I were the secretary of defense, more appropriately, I’d probably call Flynn back to active duty and then prosecute him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice,” Wilkerson said. “You can pick your charge there. Incitement to insurrection or whatever.
“These are desperate people.”
Ironically, in a segment where the theme was to attack those who question election results, Wilkerson then questioned the results of McConnell’s race last month.
“Maybe in Kentucky there was a little cheating. I think the Kentucky race that Mitch McConnell was re-elected in, against all percentages that pertained beforehand, and exit polling, and maybe there was something there, but you never look into the Republicans for cheating. And I can tell you that. I’m a Republican,” he said.
Very few people have questioned how Kentucky handled its voting last month, which, per the establishment media’s unspoken rules about questioning anything about election integrity, makes Wilkerson a tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorist.
Naturally, Bolduan sat back and let the allegation that McConnell was assisted by malfeasance slide. This, after all, is CNN — a partisan network staffed with activists who are driven by a hatred for Trump, his administration and everyone who voted for him.
But no pushback at all from Bolduan? CNN could at least make an attempt to appear as if it were an enterprise that engages in journalism.
The network, which enlists people to pontificate about how secure elections are, was mum after its guest made a fringe, unfounded claim about election fraud in Kentucky, which, unlike other jurisdictions, managed to count its ballots without leaking pipes and days of mail-in ballot tabulation.
The only fraud Wilkerson successfully displayed to CNN’s viewers was claiming that he is a Republican. Yeah, right.
The Kentucky State Board of Elections posted unofficial election night results that showed McConnell defeated Democrat Amy McGrath by a wide margin of more than 417,000 votes, 57.8 percent to 38.2 percent.
It was an easy victory for McConnell and a demoralizing defeat for the Democrats, who poured millions of dollars into trying to make McGrath competitive.
Wilkerson, though, concluded on CNN that the November election was “magnificently well done” apparently everywhere but in Kentucky.
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CNN and Bolduan responded to his statements by pivoting to demonizing Trump’s personal attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for inquiring about auditing voting machines.
Not a single follow-up question was asked about Wilkerson’s claim about the Kentucky election. No long-winded fact check has been published as of Tuesday.
CNN welcomed a guest onto the network to attack those who question election integrity, and then the network was silent when he made perhaps the most bizarre claim of the entire year.
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