Rep. Jordan plays video montage contradicting media narrative of 'peaceful protests' during Barr hearing
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, delivers an opening statement to the hearing with Attorney General Bill Barr.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper called out Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, over the video he presented that depicts the media downplaying the violence that has taken place in cities across the country.
A variety of MSNBC and CNN journalists made cameos during Attorney General William Barr's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday when ranking chairman Jordan played a lengthy montage showing the riots that have erupted in recent weeks, which was juxtaposed with several anchors and reporters talking about "peaceful protests."
"The motive was clearly to show members of the media, including many of my CNN colleagues, calling violent protests 'peaceful,' Tapper explained to viewers following the hearing. "Congressman Jordan neglected to give the full context of these comments. So my team and I did it for him."
Tapper then played two clips of CNN reporters who were seen in the video talking about "peaceful protests." One of them, featuring correspondent Josh Campbell, showed him saying, "This has been the epicenter where there have been largely peaceful protests during the day. At night, sometimes turning violent with these confrontations between protesters and police."
The other, featuring correspondent Dianne Gallagher, showed her saying, "This is something that we have been seeing here on the streets of Atlanta, mostly peaceful protests since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And when it was one of their own, that anger, that frustration, that pain simply exploded. And we saw the result of that overnight and into this morning in those protests. Again, for the most part throughout the day on Saturday, the protests after Rayshard Brooks' death were peaceful and as it began to get dark, things began to change."
"So do you understand what Congressman Jordan and his team did there?" Tapper asked. "Our reporters, Dianne Gallagher and Josh Campbell, as you saw, accurately described the protests as peaceful and then often exploding into something else, including violence at night. But Congressman Jordan, you just quoted the part of what they said that said 'peaceful protests' when that wasn't the full context. That's not what they said. They weren't calling violent protests 'peaceful.'"
Tapper continued, "Congressman Jordan, you did a disservice to them, and more importantly, you did a disservice to the American people and you did a disservice to the truth. Congressman Jordan, you owe them and anyone else's comments you completely misrepresented today on Capitol Hill, you own them an apology. Any person of honor, any person who cares about the truth would do that. I guess we'll see what you're gonna do."
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The video -- which irked House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. -- featured MSNBC host Ali Velshi famously declaring he was covering a "mostly a protest" despite a building burning right behind him.
“It is not, generally speaking, unruly,” Velshi said.
CNN anchors Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon as well as MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chuck Todd appeared in the Republican-produced montage.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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