Undaunted By the Facts, CNN Continues to Push Collusion Conspiracy Theory

“[T]he Special Counsel did not find that any U.S. person or Trump campaign official or associate conspired or knowingly coordinated with the [Russians] in [their] efforts…” That’s what Attorney General William Barr wrote in his letter to Congress summarizing the Mueller report. Yet, despite the facts compiled after two years of investigations, CNN continues to breathlessly push conspiratorial accusations of collusion between President Trump and Russia.

Over the last two nights, CNN’s prime time hosts have found no shame in continuing to push what had become their obsession for two years.

On Monday night, host Erin Burnett began OutFront by forwarding speculation that President Trump himself and/or members of his inner circle were “compromised” by the Russians. Her proof was California Congressman Adam Schiff (D), who often claimed he had mountains direct evidence of collusion only to be proven a liar by the Special Counsel.

“Our investigation is always focused on counterintelligence issues that is, is the President or anyone around him compromised in some way. That work has to go on,” Schiff said in a soundbite.

“That's a crucial question to imagine that we don't know the answer to,” Burnett exclaimed as if it could be taken seriously. Speaking to CNN crime and justice reporter Shimon Prokupecz, Burnett seemed unsure Robert Mueller ever considered it:

Shimon, obviously we have this four-page summary and then you have this report that we all hope we will get see. But what Chairman Schiff there is saying is the question of whether the President or anyone around him was compromised by Russia is a question that was—that we still are working on. Was that even part of Mueller's investigation answering that question?

Despite admitting that the Special Counsel found no evidence of collusion, Prokupecz suspected, “it was and it continues to be something that the FBI and I think counterintelligence investigators will always look for.”

Early in CNN’s Tuesday prime time line up (AC360), CNN analyst Ralph Peters proclaimed that the debunked Steele dossier still “rings true to me” despite Mueller’s findings. He received zero push back from host Anderson Cooper.

“He won’t criticize Putin, and why doesn’t he want sanctions? Why has he been slow rolling sanctions? Why does he just dovetail with Putin’s view of the world,” Peters whined with no acknowledgment of the administration’s efforts to arm Ukraine in their fight against Russia.