On CNN's State of the Union, Trump's economic advisor Larry Kudlow tried to claim that CNN used a different video than the host showed from the G7 to smear Trump over his China trade war.
Guest host Brianna Keilar would not back down as Kudlow repeated that CNN was taking the British PM's words out of context. Instead of gaslighting, Ludlow was forced to lie, and lie badly.
"I'm not sure what you just played is something from that meeting. It sounds to me like it came after the meeting, which is why I wanted to raise the right context," Kudlow said.
Right from the beginning of the interview, Kudlow began reinterpreting and rewriting the meaning of Trump's words, especially after reports saying Donald was unhappy that he started the China trade war.
In the middle of the interview, Brianna played video of newly-appointed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson telling Trump at the G7 meeting that he is not in favor of a trade war, loves "trade peace" and opposes tariffs as a whole.
And so we're keen to see -- we don't like tariffs on the whole.
When asked to respond to the complaints of Boris Johnson and other world leaders Kudlow immediately tried to imply that she improperly portrayed the British PM's comments.
"I'm not sure I agree how you portrayed that," he said claiming that he was in the entire meeting and knows best.
Guest host Brianna Keilar would not recant and replied, "What do you mean? It was a -- that's a quote"
Kudlow immediately started to play the Abbott and Costello game -- normal behavior for Trump surrogates.
Kudlow said, "Yes, well, that may be a quote, but, sometimes, you're taking a quote out of context."
She replied, "What's out of -- Larry, what's out of context? Because we just rolled video. I mean, what is out of context with that quote?"
Kudlow kept trying to defend Trump by saying all the world leaders agreed that we must get tough on China.
He continued, "I was in that room. And again try to claim Boris Johnson was taken out of context."
Kudlow said, "And so that's why I'm saying what you may have said -- and I don't know where these guys said that -- is out of context."
Keilar emphatically replied, "No, no, no, not about where you -- well, no, I have -- look, I just have to take issue with that, Larry, because he said they may -- look, there are a lot of people who think that China needs to be dealt with, but they do not like how the president is doing it."
Kudlow continued to deny the context when Johnson said the words he did say, "Now, I can't attribute or I can't account for everything these folks say, and I'm not sure what you just played is something from that meeting. It sounds to me like it came after the meeting, which is why I wanted to raise the right context."
She continued, "Larry, those words came out of Boris Johnson's mouth."
Kudlow said, "And let me -- I know. And you will keep repeating that."
"How do you argue with that?" she asked.
Kudlow replied, "You're taking it out of context."
Keilar said, "I'm not taking it out of context, Larry."
Larry chewed up the time allotted for the segment. That's a win for him.
But as this segment of the interview came to a close she made sure the CNN viewers knew the truth.
Keilar said, "I just want to be clear, that was a video of Boris Johnson speaking in that very meeting. Just -- I just want to be very clear about that."
When gaslighting fails, the only alternative for Trump supporters is to claim the host network lied about the origins of the video they were debating and use up the time without making one serious point.