Eliana Johnson
Appearances
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
I'm actually not sure if in their own mind they even distinguish between sexual assault and rape and that they themselves may be so convinced that Trump is guilty. That they elided the two things.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
You know, we just don't know what happened behind the scenes, but it's perfectly plausible to me that they dislike their visceral dislike of Trump goes so far that that they weren't all that familiar with the distinctions that the jury made, frankly.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Right. It's a really bad look. And I would add to this, it sets a... A scary precedent for two other libel suits that are underway, one against CNN and one against NBC. that are far stronger cases and have progressed much further than ABC News let this one progress.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
The one against CNN is about an incident that occurred on Jake Tapper's show where a former military veteran who was, or a military veteran who was working to extract Afghans out of Afghanistan during the collapse of the government there, CNN insinuated that he was engaged in fraud.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
And at MSNBC, where they called a doctor working in immigrant detention facilities, a uterus collector, arguing that he was performing hysterectomies unnecessarily. And those suits, you know, Jake Tapper's deposition was taken. Um, and dirt came out in that. So, um, this has to be sending a chill, not just through ABC, but like CNN and MSNBC cannot be feeling good today.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Well, that's where the malice comes in, where not only have you been apprised that you made a factual error that impugned somebody's character. by saying a falsehood about them on national television, you then go and repeat it and dig your heels in once again on national television.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
And so that I think is actually pretty good grounds for showing malice, where you say, not only did I do it the first time, but I was right. I was right. No apologies. Because the pretty easy way to get out of these things is to do what ABC News has now done, where you put a correction up and say, We regret the error.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
But that is not that is not the attitude that George Stephanopoulos took in the Stephen Colbert interview after the litigation had been filed.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
You know, the most astonishing thing in the Acosta Stelter clip is that they're defending as some matter of journalistic integrity, the right to say false things about the president of the United States and to misinform their viewers on national television.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
One would think the reaction would be, you know, this is unfortunate, but we have such a major responsibility that we do pay a price when we screw up And don't correct ourselves promptly and tell our viewers the truth in a prompt manner. And fortunately here at CNN, we don't have anything to worry about because we just strive to bring viewers the truth and the straight facts every day.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
But I mean, this is not the one I would really try to stand on principle on.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Yeah. You get it now, right? We all, we all understand it.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Yeah, Trump has always had lawsuits as a weapon in his arsenal. And what's surprising, we said, this is astonishing that the ABC News lawsuit succeeded. So what's surprising is when they're meritorious, when they have success, when George Stephanopoulos and ABC News are forced to pay $15 million because they were so sloppy.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
So I have not seen or read about the three that you just mentioned, but it does strike me that the CBS News one, while I know that the three of us have talked about the CBS News edits and Trump's claims about them on the show. Look, what they did may have been wrong. We may take issue with it, but I sort of doubt they transgressed a law there.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Um, and, uh, and the Pulitzer one, I just don't know anything about, I would have to go read their statements. Um, but it shouldn't be surprising to anybody that Trump is suing all these people. He's, um, he's one of the most litigious people in the country. Uh, so, you know, let's, let's just, uh, expect lots of legal funds. I will say though, um, where he files the suits is important.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
The ABC news lawsuit was filed in Florida. Which meant that unlike some of the other lawsuits that we've seen brought against Trump, which were successful because he faced hostile juries, I think that the ABC News suit had more likelihood of success because ABC News would have faced a hostile jury in the state of Florida.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
look to me the open question in this um and it's amazing it's actually a syrian media watchdog that called cnn on this um is was cnn in on this or were they duped um did they want and were they um making a made for TV moment. Did they participate in this or were they totally hoodwinked?
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
And reports about the man's actual identity were that he was a member of Bashar al-Assad's military forces who tortured those who refused to bribe him. That's what the Syrian media watchdog is saying. So he's not only was he not a prisoner Assad, he was a henchman of Assad's. So it's pretty far off the mark for CNN.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Yeah, I think it goes back to our initial conversation that they decided that paying $15 million was less painful than the protracted embarrassment and potential humiliation of what would come out in those documents. You know, then the PR cost to them. And as we saw, it's actually interesting to contrast that with Fox News, where basically they did go through discovery.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
They were going to go through trial. They ended up suffering the PR costs and paying the money. It's like, you know, they might as well just paid the money and avoided all the discovery and the depositions, which seems to be what ABC News did here.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Well, I think you're exactly right. It'd be one conversation if we were going to talk about, look, she made the decision to go along to get along, and this is the way to silence her critics. And OK, you know, one could understand that. But the reality is that accepting this award and then saying what she said is not going to silence any critics. It's not going to help her go along to get along.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
And you see that from the reaction of the Mystics owner saying, And which is why it's clear she's young and and stupid and unsophisticated and doesn't realize this. But the thing that really struck me, Megan, is I grew up a fan of the NBA in the era of Michael Jordan.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
And since then, as I followed less closely, the major NBA stars have been since Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, all African-American men. And is the stipulation that female basketball fans are somehow uniquely racist? You know, Caitlin Clark is really talented, but we haven't seen race be a barrier to major, major stardom in the male basketball league and riches.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
And that's what we've seen in the NBA, of course. We're reacting to her color. Exactly. Time and again in the NBA where the talent and hard work, there's actually a wonderful Netflix series on about these NBA players and follows their families. LeBron James is one of them.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
But, you know, the amount when you watch and really appreciate the amount of hard work it takes to be an elite athlete the way these guys are, it's just astonishing. And and when you see that they're not talking about the racism of NBA fans.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Right. We have no idea. And I would say that the Biden administration is bedeviled in terms of its credibility with the public by the fact that there was a Chinese spy balloon that flying over the country that it did not tell the public about until Americans saw it hovering in the sky. And it was a public pressure campaign that forced the administration to disclose what that was.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
And so when you hear them saying, we have no idea what this is, I think it sort of strains credulity. And Kirby's response wasn't like, hey, you know, we don't know what this is. We're taking it very seriously and we're in the process of putting policy options in front of the president. We're going to have we're going to come to a decision in the coming days. It just didn't, you know.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Something didn't seem quite right.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
A good point. And I point out that if they don't know what these drones are doing and can't find out in about 30 minutes, that should frighten every American. So both of the I think both alternatives here that we have are that they know and they're not disclosing it or they don't know are are disturbing.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
This is astonishing for a number of reasons, a couple of which we haven't touched on yet. But I really can't recall a case in which a major national news organization had to pay a sum like this to a celebrity or politician in the U.S. And that's particularly because the protections for news organizations are so high. So you can't be sued just for saying something untrue.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
Can't be sued for libel or defamation for saying something untrue. Trump would have had to show that George Stephanopoulos did so with actual malice. That's the standard. And it's a very high standard. But this this case never went that far. And I think that's the question is ABC actually might have had a strong case because because it is so hard to win these lawsuits.
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
And the question is, why did they settle? Why did they settle and why did they settle now? Was it that they didn't want to be involved in litigation with the sitting president of the United States? Or was it that they knew very embarrassing and unflattering things would come out in the discovery process or that Stephanopoulos would be forced to make embarrassing admissions in a deposition?
The Megyn Kelly Show
ABC Pays Trump Millions to Settle, and Government Deflects About "Drone" Truth, with Emily Jashinsky and Eliana Johnson | Ep. 966
We don't know. But to me, there are some serious unanswered questions about why the settlement was made and around the timing of it that lead to speculation around those things. I have to assume that it was one of those things and that paying $15 million now was less painful for them than going through a potentially humiliating or embarrassing discovery process.