On Wednesday’s “CNN NewsNight,” host Abby Phillip said that Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed “does not support defunding the police” and was later hit with a fact-check using CNN’s own reporting on El-Sayed’s support for defunding the police in 2020.
Former Trump official Caroline Sunshine said El-Sayed “wants to defund the police.”
Phillip responded, “I will say El-Sayed didn’t — does not support defunding the police.”
Sunshine responded that he has and now is trying to shift away.
Phillip responded that “he has said that he doesn’t support defunding the police.”
Later in the segment, former New York City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R) said, “I also don’t mean to fact-check you, but CNN’s reporting is saying that he has called to defund the police, despite his own denials of doing so. That was an article that came out on CNN.com, July 7. So, this is a guy who’s trying to run away from his past.”
Phillip responded, “I think the question that I’m fundamentally asking is, by dredging up the sort of wedge issues of 2020, are you missing the point? Are Republicans missing the real issue that is animating voters today by focusing on things that they don’t care as much about, because it’s not as salient to them?”
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