After the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, CNN hosted a town hall discussion on Wednesday, February 21, which included politicians, an NRA representative, and several students of the school who posed questions to panel members.
That same evening, a student from the high school, Colton Haab, told a Miami TV news station why he had opted out of the town hall, stating that “CNN had originally asked [him] to write a speech and questions, and it ended up being all scripted.”
The story was picked up by major news outlets and Colton appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
On Carlson’s show, Colton reiterated his claim that CNN producer Claire Stevenson “had asked me originally to just write a speech, it was going to be at the town hall … so I agreed.”
“The next day after that,” Colton continued, “I got an email back from [Stevenson] and she asked for more of questions rather than a speech, which I was totally fine with. So I wrote a little less of a speech and more of questions I wanted to ask at the town hall.” Colton went on to say that Stevenson clarified that CNN wanted only questions from him, which he obliged. Colton then explained to Carlson that he later spoke on the phone with Stevenson, who had clarified that CNN wanted only one question from him:
CNN released a statement claiming that it had not “scripted” a question for Colton:
CNN response to the claim of a “scripted question” for last night’s town hall: pic.twitter.com/Mz1hMqqfkw
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 22, 2018
Glenn Haab, Colton’s father, had provided Fox News with a Word document he put together so that he could copy and paste it to Facebook for friends who were asking why Colton had opted out of the town hall. Glenn told THE WEEKLY STANDARD, the document, which he also sent to us, was never meant to be a full transcript but a brief explanation of their decision to not attend the event. The Word doc has commentary notes from Glenn interspersed throughout the copy and pasted email correspondence.
CNN released some of Stevenson’s email correspondence with Glenn, and it showed that the Word document had left out the phrase “that he submitted” in an email Stevenson sent. The original sentence was: “This is what Colton and I discussed on the phone that he submitted.”
Glenn admits that his Word document did not include “that he submitted” but maintains this was unintentional and not an attempt to “doctor” the email as some have claimed. In light of this information, Fox News issued updates to its original reporting.
What question did Colton submit to CNN?
One of four questions that Colton submitted to CNN via email at 12:01 a.m. on the Wednesday of the town hall was, “Have we thought about having a class for teachers who are willing to be armed trained to carry on campus?”
Colton and Stevenson talked on the phone a little after 5 p.m. on Wednesday, after which Stevenson emailed Glenn:
This is where the disagreement comes in. Glenn told TWS Fact Check that Colton did not agree to the question Stevenson wrote in the email, stating that the first time “Colton saw the question was when [Stevenson] emailed it to me at approximately 5:47 PM.”
The first half of the question in Stevenson’s email includes a quote by Colton from a previous interview with Fox and Friends in which he stated, “If Coach Feis had had his firearm in school that day, I believe that he could’ve most likely stopped the threat.”
The full question in the email Stevenson sent uses this direct quote from Colton’s interview, paired with the question he had submitted via email: “Have we thought about having a class for teachers who are willing to be armed trained to carry on campus?”
Without knowing exactly what was discussed on the phone call between Colton and Stevenson, it is impossible to determine whether they agreed on the addition regarding Coach Feis.
If you have questions about this fact check, or would like to submit a request for another fact check, email Holmes Lybrand at [email protected] or the Weekly Standard at [email protected]. For details on TWS Fact Check, see our explainer here.
