Folks on the right have long termed CNN “fake news.” The network seemed to have a brief foray into wanting to turn it into a legitimate news organization under former CEO Chris Licht. Licht fired some of the folks who acted as little more than Democratic operatives in their jobs. But ultimately, he was fired and they seemed to have fully returned (if they ever left) to their bad, old ways.

Now, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is ticked off about a deceptive edit of something that RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said during an interview with Chris Wallace about the 2020 election and the Hunter Biden laptop. Wallace previewed the spot on Wednesday, in a segment with CNN Primetime host Laura Coates, in which Wallace implied that McDaniel is an “election denier.”

On Friday, Chris Wallace interviewed RNC chair Ronna McDaniel but first, CNN previewed it on Wednesday. It sounds like she's an conspiracy theorist, "I am saying there were lots of problems with the 2020 election and we need to fix it going forward" But there's a problem… (1/4) pic.twitter.com/rH4ySl6Kfo

— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 15, 2023

MCDANIEL: But I don’t think he won it fair. I don’t. I’m not going to say that.

WALLACE: You’re saying you’re not sure, as the Republican Party chair, that he was the legitimately elected president.

MCDANIEL: I am saying there were lots of problems with the 2020 election and we need to fix it going forward.

Back in studio, Coates wondered “I mean, Chris, I understand the value of a yes-or-no response. You didn’t get one there. So, what does that portend for the tone of this entire race now?”

Wallace decried that “Well, look, there are an awful lot of people, an awful lot of Republicans who don’t think that Joe Biden won the election fairly in 2020, even though he did, even though there were 60 court cases that said he did.

They then used it to try to suggest she’d said something she hadn’t, with folks like MSNBC host Chris Hayes saying, “She just can’t say the straightforward sentence.”

The edited Tuesday clip was used by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Thursday to also portray her as someone who can’t “just can’t say the straightforward sentence” pic.twitter.com/SDZ7wc3VK0

— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 15, 2023

But it looks like it’s MSNBC and CNN that “just can’t say the straightforward sentence.”

What CNN clipped out was one of the reasons McDaniel was saying she didn’t think the election was fair. They were clipping out what she said about the Hunter Biden laptop being suppressed, and that 51 former officials pushed that it was likely Russian disinformation. Former CIA head Mike Morrell said he organized the letter so Joe Biden could have a talking point to help him win.

“Let’s look at the Hunter Biden laptop. Fifty-one people in the intelligence agencies signed a letter saying it was Russian disinformation; that’s what the public disseminated, was being told. That’s not true. That’s a lie.”

“So you’re suggesting that he may not be the legitimately elected president?” Wallace asked.

“I’m saying the American people were not given the information they deserve before that election,” she replied.

If Wallace and CNN clip this out in their previews and try to mislead people as to what was said, can we call them reality deniers? Most of the media, including CNN, participated in spreading this falsehood that helped Joe Biden in the 2020 election. A poll in 2022 found that nearly four in five Americans said that “truthful” reporting about Hunter Biden’s questionable business deals, revealed in emails from his abandoned laptop, would have affected the 2020 election results. So who are truly the “deniers” here?

RNC spokesman Keith Schipper slammed CNN for what they did. “Deceptively editing an interview and continuing to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story is why the American people keep losing trust in the media,” Schipper said.

What’s CNN’s response? They act as though they have done nothing wrong, saying there was “nothing to comment on.”

“New episodes of ‘Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?’ drop Friday mornings on Max, and air Fridays at 10pm ET/PT on CNN,” the rep said. “The hour-long CNN program will air this evening. Chris appeared on CNN Primetime on Wednesday to preview the full interview with a clip.”

Yes, and to miscast what was said to more viewers.

The only saving grace here is that so few people watch CNN, few people will likely see their misleading preview.