President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign accused CNN media reporter Brian Stelter of sexism on Sunday for telling campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis that her children and grandchildren would be ashamed of her one day.
In what Mediaite called a “trainwreck” interview on Stelter’s show, Reliable Sources, the host quizzed Ellis about the campaign’s threat to sue CNN over a poll last week that showed former Vice President Joe Biden fourteen points ahead.
The campaign claimed that the poll numbers are wrong, and suggested that they were reported as part of an effort to suppress voter enthusiasm and turnout for Trump, who faces a tough re-election fight in the midst of social upheaval.
After Ellis defended President Trump’s use of Twitter to push back against “fake news,” Stelter fired back at her: “You understand that like some day you’re going to regret this, right? Some day you’re going to regret this when your kids and your grandkids look back at this time, and you use slurs and smears like ‘fake news’ to hurt news outlets.”
Ellis responded that Stelter was guilty of using “personal attacks,” and he reiterated the point, saying she would later “recognize how damaging it was, how damaging it was to use terms like ‘fake news,’ to attack journalists who are trying to do their jobs.”
“You’re not trying to do your job, Brian. You’re not a journalist. You’re an activist,” she replied.
The Trump campaign issued a statement on Sunday evening, via Ali Pardo, deputy communications director:
Liberal activists masquerading as journalists are constantly demeaning and insulting conservative women simply for having the audacity to think for ourselves and go against the fake news narrative they are pushing that day. President Trump has constantly championed strong women in positions of power and delivered on key issues that matter to women across the country: making our communities safer and bringing jobs back to America. Brian Stelter’s comments today toward Senior Legal Adviser Jenna Ellis were sexist and demeaning, implying that her children and grandchildren will be ashamed of her simply because she was holding media outlets accountable. This kind of on-air meltdown and lashing out is completely unprofessional, yet it’s what we’ve come to expect from the leftists who hate President Trump. It would be great if so-called journalists would refrain from personal attacks and putting words in the mouths of the children and grandchildren of strong, smart, and independent women. We condemn Brian Stelter’s behavior and call on CNN and Stelter to apologize.
Stelter tweeted several times about the interview later on Sunday, noting at one point: “Just woke up from a nap and I see my Twitter mentions are still exploding re: this interview today.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.