Too many Republicans go on CNN expecting a straightforward interview or a good-faith debate. Unfortunately, what the network calls “news” is actually a 24/7 in-kind donation to the Democratic Party.
Fortunately, GOP lawmakers now increasingly understand how the game is played. In two interviews just four days apart, Rep. Elise Stefanik put on an absolute clinic.
CNN’s days of journalistic malpractice may be coming to an end soon. David Ellison is on track to acquire the network sometime this fall once his $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros.-Discovery gets the stamp of approval from antitrust regulators. Hopefully, this change in ownership will lead to the same kind of reforms and personnel changes Ellison brought to CBS News when he bought it last year. But in the meantime, Republicans who appear on CNN should follow Stefanik’s playbook.
Her first showdown took place on The Situation Room with host Wolf Blitzer.
These partisans (and their counterparts at other left-leaning outlets) were practically giddy with excitement over President Trump’s public disagreements with Pope Leo. They know Trump won in 2024 because he maintained he appealed to people of all faiths, and they think that if they give these stories enough oxygen, they can convince these same folks to stay home in November — or maybe even vote blue.
So of course, Blitzer made sure to raise the subject.
“You're a proud Catholic, as we all know. Is it appropriate for a wartime President to repeatedly attack the first American Pope because the Pope has been speaking out against this conflict?” he asked.
Blitzer tried to use Stefanik’s own faith to trap her, but she was ready with a perfect response:
“I'm proud that we have the first American Pope. (But) I don't want to see the Pope as a politician,” Stefanik said.
It’s typical for the talking heads of CNN to try to use religion as a wedge—but only when they think it harms Republicans.
We are all aware of the Catholic Church’s stance on issues like abortion and transgender treatments for minors, but when was the last time Wolf Blitzer, or anyone else at CNN, asked Catholic Democrats to explain their willingness to ignore church teachings on these issues?
They don’t, and Stefanik responded the only way you can in that moment, by shifting the focus back where it belongs.
“I know CNN loves to focus on the tweets and memes of President Trump. I look at his record of results,” Stefanik continued. “He has strong support from Catholics like me, and I've been proud of our record. The media can continue talking about the tweets. I talk about the results.”
It’s surprising that CNN would invite Stefanik back just a few days after such a decisive smackdown, but that’s exactly what the network did.
On the next episode of State of the Union, Jake Tapper tried a well-tested trick. It works like this: identify one thing your guest opposes and one thing she supports, insist that they’re actually the same thing (even if they definitely aren’t), then accuse her of hypocrisy until she says they’re both good or they’re both bad.
In this case, Tapper’s preferred “gotcha” was a viral 2023 committee hearing at which Stefanik called out Ivy League presidents for refusing to discipline students who called for genocide against Jews.
“A call for genocide on a college campus and a call for genocide made by the president of the United States, like, they're both bad, right?” Tapper asked, referring to Trump’s Truth Social post threatening that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran didn’t come to the table.
It’s an unfair parallel to draw. Hamas and their supporters literally want to commit genocide against Israelis. It’s in their charter. Trump, on the other hand, was clearly engaged in clumsy hyperbole. Does Tapper actually believe Trump was threatening to obliterate Iran’s cities with nuclear missiles or round up its people and gas them? One wouldn’t think so. But even bad-faith arguments can make effective traps.
John Faso is an attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for New York's 19th congressional district.
