A variety of MSNBC and CNN hosts made cameos during Attorney General William Barr's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday when Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, used his opening statement to put an emphasis on mainstream media’s efforts to paint sometimes violent protesters as “peaceful.”
“I want to thank you for defending law enforcement, for pointing out what a crazy idea this defund the police policy ... whatever you want to call it, is, and standing up for the rule of law,” Jordan said. “We have a video we want to show that gets right to this point.”
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Jordan then played a powerful video montage featuring a variety of mainstream media members referring to recent protests as “peaceful,” which included everyone from CNN’s Don Lemon to NBC News’ Chuck Todd dismissing violence amid images of burning buildings and attacks on law enforcement.
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.
Rachel Maddow, Chris Cuomo and Willie Geist also appeared in the Republican exhibit.
The words “peaceful protest” were uttered by more than a dozen pundits before footage of the widow of retired St. Louis police Capt. David Dorn speaking about her husband’s tragic death began.
Dorn was murdered amid riots and looting on June 2 while working to protect a pawn shop. His widow spoke about the senseless death as additional footage of law enforcement officers being attacked by protesters played as part of Jordan’s video.
Barr looked on as the dramatic footage was played, portraying chaos in many of America’s major cities since George Floyd was killed in police custody in May.
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When the video ended, Nadler, snarked, “I hope that Mr. Jordan will never complain about the length of my opening statement.”
Nadler then complained the video was not within the committe's protocol.
“Without objection, I am going to insert committee's audio-visual policy into the record of this hearing, and note that the minority did not give the 48 hours notice required,” he said.
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