Jan Crawford, CBS News’ national legal correspondent, couldn’t wait to tweet out pointed criticism of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s exchange with paid agitator and white Christian nationalist Tommy Teepell.
Here’s what she posted:
And here’s the text for posterity. She quote-tweeted his video with this text:
Tommy, thank you. I had to watch this twice to catch Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s nanosecond “yeah absolutely” response. His subsequent uninterrupted three-minute diatribe proving your exact point is the kind of spectacular self own most ppl only dream about triggering. Congrats
So for me, this is very strange coming from a legal correspondent. Not just the congrats, but the utter disregard for the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, since that was really what the “subsequent uninterrupted three-minute diatribe” was about, and it certainly did not prove any failure to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed, her quote confirms that he did, in fact, do exactly that.
Obviously, this is absolutely inappropriate for any employee of a legitimate news operation to send out. But coming from someone who is supposed to know the law, it’s really something.
So there were murmurs, apparently. Justin Baragona reported that Crawford is close with Bari Weiss, but the tweet was still under scrutiny.
As I was writing this, Crawford tweeted an apology, saying she deleted that tweet and video because it was a violation of CBS News standards.
It’s too late for that, Jan. You cheered a white Christian nationalist who admitted he would defy the constitution to promote laws inserting Christian doctrine. You cheered Islamophobia. You cheered a paid agitator.
Bari Weiss might protect you, but it’s another strike against CBS News and what it used to stand for.