Democrats had an online meltdown after hosts from their leftist network CNN dared question President Biden’s use of the military during his fiery primetime attack on his Republican rivals.
Hosts Brianna Keilar and Jeff Zeleny were just a few of the people upset at the commander-in-chief using Marines to back him during his speech — sparking demands for their axing and an outright boycott of the left-wing network.
“You are clearly a shill for the RNC,” one person whose Twitter bio includes a #BidenHarris2020 hashtag tweeted Zeleny just for saying that using the Marine Band was “a break with White House traditions.”
“Your sheets are showing.”
“New Day” host Keiler was first to spark the meltdown, writing, “Whatever you think of this speech the military is supposed to be apolitical.
“Positioning Marines in uniform behind President Biden for a political speech flies in the face of that. It’s wrong when Democrats do it. It’s wrong when Republicans do it.”
A minute later, the network’s chief national affairs correspondent was even more measured, stressing that “there’s nothing unusual or wrong with a president delivering a political speech — it’s inherent in the job description.”
However, Zeleny claimed, “doing it against a backdrop of two Marines standing at attention and the Marine Band is a break with White House traditions.”
Both were soon flooded by people saying they had unfollowed them as well as calls to boycott CNN over the simple statements.
“Brianna Keilar has sold her soul,” one person told their more than 90,000 followers, while others said the tweet proved she is now “straight up MAGA.”
“You know CNNs transformation into Baby Fox News is officially complete when Brianna Keilar goes MAGA,” one “vote blue” supporter said.
“Uncovering The Truth” podcaster Dash Dobrofsky also told his 109,000 followers that Keilar’s criticism proved that “CNN stands against Biden and supports Fascism.”
Others suggested that because Keilar and Zeleny had shared the same thought, it must be proof that they were under the control of right-wing forces supposedly now in charge at the network.
Former MSNBC host Keith Olberman told his 1 million followers that CNN staff “are living in dread of being Steltered” — referring to the recent axing of host Brian Stelter — “by the new right wing management.”
“Having said that,” he wrote, Keilar and Zeleny “should be fired tonight. Sorry.”
Olberman also added Poppy Harlow to the list while sharing a message condemning CNN’s “embarrassing coverage” of Biden’s speech.
Rodney Grim told his 7,000 followers that “Brianna Keilar is quiet quitting” in anger that “CNN is turning into Fox News.”
“Complaining that the president has military behind him is like complaining that he’s wearing a suit and tie,” he claimed
Random House vice president Benjamin Dreyer had such a meltdown, he made a glaring mistake despite being a best-selling copy-editing guru.
He accused Keilar of making an “embarrassing” mistake and “cheating” by copying Zeleny’s tweet — even though the timestamps of the messages he shared clearly showed that Keilar’s tweet was posted first.
Keilar soon addressed the backlash, tweeting, “It’s possible to agree with everything Biden said and still disagree with using Marines as backdrops for a political speech.”