CNN host threatens to cut off interview with Texas Republican

CNN host Brianna Keilar threatened to cut off an interview with Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) on Thursday after the representative interrupted her multiple times.

Keilar was interviewing Van Duyne on “CNN News Central” and questioning her about a Senate bill that included Israel and Ukraine aid. Keilar noted that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) has criticized the bill for not including border security provisions.

Van Duyne then brought up Republicans’ border security bill, House Resolution 2, and said it would get rid of “catch and release,” or the humanitarian parole of migrants. She also spoke about her time as mayor of Irving, Texas, and the partnership she had with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while in that role.

“Let me stop and ask you about this, a couple things,” Keilar stated. “First off, illegal immigrants’ criminal conviction rate is 45 percent below that of native-born Americans in your state, just to be clear. 

“When you raise the specter of, ‘They create so many crimes, they’re convicted,’” Keilar said, “I mean, when it comes to violent crimes, property crimes, homicides, sex crimes, you’ve talked in the past about rapes — the numbers just don’t support that. But let’s focus on ‘catch and release.’”

Van Duyne then began to interrupt Keilar, causing the two women to talk over each other. Keilar then attempted to bring up the topic of “catch and release” again, noting that when examining the practice, “you have to look at what’s causing it, and it’s a judicial backlog.” She also pointed to the recently failed bipartisan foreign aid and border deal, which would have clamped down on the practice of humanitarian parole.

“Actually, it wouldn’t have,” Van Duyne cut in and began interrupting Keilar again, repeatedly disagreeing with her.

The two began to talk over each other again, leading to Keilar stating that if Van Duyne wouldn’t let her speak, she would “cut the interview off.”

“And I will let you speak and finish sentences,” Keilar said.