Media

CNN Analyst Brian Karem Defends Press Briefing Meltdown

CNN

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
Font Size:

CNN political analyst Brian Karem is refusing to apologize for yelling out of turn at a recent press briefing with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

WATCH:

During Thursday’s briefing, Karem started shouting at Sanders about the Trump administration’s policy on separating illegal immigrant families at the border and used Sanders’ children to make a point about “empathy.” (RELATED: Sarah Sanders Slams Whiny Reporter On Families Separated At Border)

“Don’t you have any empathy? Come on, Sarah. You’re a parent. Don’t you have any empathy for what these people are going through?” Karem spouted as Sanders told him to “settle down.”

Karem appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday to discuss the incident, but rather than apologizing he doubled down on his child-like actions.

“I have an apology to make,” he started. “I apologize to every who has had to suffer…who has less than I do, and I did not come to the table sooner. I’m sorry to those people for waiting so long, holding my temper.”

“I’m sorry that I am extremely angry with this administration that has lied to me, continues to lie to me. I’m sorry as a reporter that for so long I thought that the idea was to — I was struggling so hard to do my job I forgot that my job is to comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable, and ask questions for those who have no voice.”

CNN host Brian Stelter pushed back on Karem’s non-apology to Sanders or the other journalists in the briefing room, noting that many thought he came across as a “caricature” trying to “make it all about [himself].”

“It’s not legitimate,” Karem said of that criticism. “It was Sarah Huckabee Sanders who brought her family into that press room, she has beat us over the head with this.”

 Follow Amber on Twitter