New York Times journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro on Monday forcefully pushed back against a former Trump White House spokesman’s attempt to play down the chaos that unfolded during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol four years ago.
The on-air confrontation came during CNN’s “The Situation Room” hours after Congress moved to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory Monday – which former White House deputy communications director Brian Morgenstern praised as “a clean and clear process” and “a great day for America.”
“An enormous contrast to what the Trump White House did four years ago,” host Wolf Blitzer noted.
That’s when Morgenstern delivered a forceful defense of the incoming president before Garcia-Navarro stepped in to offer a brutal fact check.
“Well, four years ago, you know, the president did say peacefully and patriotically go to the capitol,” Morgenstern said. “Obviously we saw what unfolded. The American people and the voters also saw the lawfare that came before and after that – they saw the weaponization of the federal government against political opponents – and they voted to stop that.”
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“That's not…they didn't vote for what happened on January 6,” Garcia-Navarro said cutting the onetime Trump spokesman off mid-sentence.
“I think what you've seen today is really – yes, the peaceful transfer of power – it is in marked contrast to what happened on January 6," Garcia-Navarro said. "And Donald Trump, the problem is, that part of what happened on January 6 is – the story that Donald Trump wants to tell about himself – that he didn't lose and that these people were actually acting in a just cause and that's why he wants to pardon them. But that is not the real story.”
Garcia-Navarro added that the dilemma the country currently finds itself in “is that we are still in the era of January 6 four years ago. That hasn't changed.”
The New York Times journalist and podcast host then aimed at Morgenstern’s equating of Black Lives Matter protests during Trump’s first term to Jan. 6 rioters.
“But, you know those are absolutely two different things,” Navarro-Garcia said as Morgenstern continued talking over her. “Wait, let's be clear…one group of people – hold on. One group of people were protesting for racial justice, and one group of people were trying to overturn a legitimate election. Those are two very different things, and we did see people prosecuted for violent actions when they took them.”
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