CNN Anchor Won’t Apologize for Calling Rand Paul an “A-hole”

CNN personality Brianna Keilar refuses to apologize after she called Senator Rand Paul and A-hole for grilling Dr. Fauci on the origins of the coronavirus.

The exchange in question was Paul’s disgust at the U.S. funneling money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the suspected site of the coronavirus pandemic’s origination.

Paul has focused much questioning and criticism on whether or not U.S. taxpayers were funding risky gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, something the NIAID director vehemently denied. 

In May, Keilar went after Paul for his aggressive “WWE” approach.

“Nothing brings out Senator Paul’s propensity to act like a congressional appearance by Fauci,” Keilar said. 

She later added, “Like Elvis’ Kentucky Rain, Rand Paul’s COVID BS keeps pouring down, and it’s enough to fill the swimming pool in the Senate gym.”

However, Fauci has been facing renewed scrutiny after the National Institutes of Health sent a letter to Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., admitting to a “limited experiment” conducted in order to test if “spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model” – contradicting Fauci’s previous claims.

Sen. Paul’s wife Kelley Paul called out the CNN anchor on Twitter as well as CBS’ Gayle King over their past coverage of Fauci.

“While Rand has been demanding transparency from Fauci for over a year, lowbrow hacks like @brikeilarcnn responded by calling Rand an a** on air. Giggling @GayleKing fangirled Fauci and ridiculed Rand, ignoring the point of his questions. Have any comments now, Gayle and Brianna?” Paul asked on Friday. 

That caught the attention of the CNN anchor, who told the senator’s wife, “I stand by my characterization of Sen. Paul.”

Keilar then went on to argue that the letter did not vindicate the GOP lawmaker, writing, “The theory Paul constructs, that Fauci’s covering up how covid is a manmade virus unleashed on the world by the Obama administration because of a NIH research grant awarded in 2014, is not supported by this letter. It’s actually disproven by the information in the letter.” 

She did, though, acknowledge the “alarming new info” about the gain-of-function research conducted by EcoHealth Alliance, which funded it through NIH grants, as “potentially dangerous.”

Other critics torched the “New Day” co-host for lacking professionalism and journalistic ethics.

“It’s easy to point out these people operate without an ounce of introspection or shame. But shamelessness, while embarrassing, is secondary to the reality here — CNN spreads misinformation under the guise of stopping misinformation. When called out, they double down,” Fourth Watch media critic Steve Krakauer reacted. 

“The contorting side juvenile behavior by Brianna is a requirement to live in Zuckerville. How does that help anyone other than driving clicks and hate?” NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck asked, alluding to CNN president Jeff Zucker. 

New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz tweeted Keilar, “admits the NIH covered up important information but can’t make the leap that they did so here too because then she’d have to admit she was obnoxiously wrong about Rand Paul.”

All in all, Keilar’s unapologetic response to her commentary appears to be part of CNN’s typical playbook.