CNN Host Fact-Checks Katrina Pierson Over Her Claim That Khizr Khan Supports Sharia Law

CNN Host Fact-Checks Katrina Pierson Over Her Claim That Khizr Khan Supports Sharia Law

One of the unfortunate obstacles of life for cable news hosts this election season has been dealing with Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson. Day after day, they are stuck listening to her vapidly defend her boss while repeating the silliest talking points in American political history.

On Wednesday, a day after Pierson said President Obama was responsible for Capt. Humayun Khan’s death, despite Khan dying in 2004 when Obama was is the Illinois state legislature, the Trump flack popped up on CNN to deliver some more drivel. This time, she kinda, sorta admitted she was wrong in blaming the President for Khan being killed in Iraq. (It was like pulling teeth for then hosts to get that out of her.) However, she decided to pivot towards something even more asinine and fact-free.

In an effort to smear the Khan family, Pierson used her interview time to make the bogus claim that Khizr Khan is a proponent of Sharia law. (She said the same thing Tuesday night during her appearance on Fox News’ The Kelly File.) This is something that has been floated by the right-wing noise machine the past couple of days, led by Breitbart (natch) as a way to discredit Khan, especially as he’s touted his love and adherence to the Constitution. In fact, one Trump ally, Roger Stone, has even said that Khan is allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, making it appear that the Khans are really RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS ™.

Thankfully, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota wasn’t having it on Wednesday and was ready for Pierson to go down this road. The moment the spokesperson stated that Khan was a supporter of Sharia, and that all Donald Trump was doing was questioning that because believers of Sharia believe all other laws are subordinate to it, Camerota immediately stopped her.

“That’s not true, Katrina. That’s not true. The father has addressed that. I’ll just read to you, unless we have it on tape. He said that — we have it on tape? All right, let’s play it.”

Yep, The producers had the tape  of an interview ready where Khizr Khan addressed the rumors about his adherence to Sharia. Here’s what he said:

“Sharia law as we have titled it, there is no such thing as Sharia law. These are laws of various Muslim countries, which are hodgepodge of Finnish laws, French laws, Portuguese laws. In there, there is tremendous discrimination of genders which disqualifies them under the Constitution of United States, cannot be implemented, cannot be brought. How can I be a person that has read this, I preach that, that I do not stand for any Sharia law because there is no such thing.”

Of course, ol’ Katrina wasn’t buying it. She talked about “reports” that were out there showing he is a believer and supporter of Sharia law, so why believe what he says? (Once again, she’s talking about Breitbart and other right-wing rags making a connection between a book review he wrote in 1983 and the author of said book. It is a lot of rabbit hole diving.) This led to Camerota just sighing, telling Pierson bye, and explaining to her that the network is going to post the truth.

Below is video of the exchange, courtesy of CNN:

 

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the founder/publisher of Contemptor and a contributor to The Daily Beast. He was previously the Cable News Correspondent for Mediaite and prior to starting Contemptor, he worked on the editorial staff of PoliticusUSA. During that time, he had his work quoted by USA Today and BBC News, among others. Justin began his published career as a political writer for 411Mania. He resides in St. Louis, MO with his wife and pets.

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