CNN anchor Brianna Keilar told Mercedes Schlapp, senior adviser to the president’s campaign, that comments about her family are off-limits.
In a Thursday tweet, she wrote, “Your op-ed is riddled with lies, Mercedes, but most despicable is you trying to character assassinate my husband, an active duty military officer, and mistaking him for someone else in the process.”
In response to @mercedesschlapp’s @RealClearNews op-ed. Get your facts straight. And don’t mess with my family. pic.twitter.com/pMgIyfSEv0
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 6, 2020
Keilar was responding to an op-ed Schlapp wrote for RealClearPolitics. Schlapp wrote the article after appearing on Keilar’s show on Tuesday, where the two engaged in an intense spar over the issue of voter fraud.
At one point, Keilar became so aggravated with her interview subject that she said, “This is pointless. I get it, you’re just saying a bunch of crap! OK. You’re saying a bunch of crap.”
Within Schlapp’s response to the interview, she wrote, “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.”
She then added, “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.'”
Keilar responded, “You state that he tweeted something disparaging about the president. No, he didn’t. I don’t know what tweet you’re talking about, but it is not my husband’s.” She added, “You mention that he was a former director on the National Security Council during the Obama administration, but perhaps you should’ve kept reading. He also continued on in the same role after President Trump was inaugurated, was promoted in 2017 and had a hand in the administration’s South Asia strategy.”
Keilar noted that her husband has served in seven combat deployments and has spent much time away from her and their children.
“He has served and sacrificed for this country in ways you and I can’t begin to fathom,” she said. “Get your facts straight. And don’t mess with my family.”
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and husband to Mercedes, tweeted in response, “Hey [Brianna] get your facts straight on how voting works and don’t mess w my family. America was better when CNN actually covered the news instead of covering for socialism.”
