In an article headlined “Nancy Pelosi’s very big accusation against the White House,” CNN politics reporter Chris Cillizza argues:
It's one thing for Trump, as he did on Thursday, to rescind the military plane Pelosi and the rest of her colleagues were planning to fly on as a way of exacting revenge on her for asking the President to delay his planned "State of the Union" speech on January 29. To do so publicly -- White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted out the letter Trump sent to Pelosi -- is to raise the stakes. To leak commercial travel plans to make absolutely certain that Pelosi can't go on the trip is a bridge even further.
WTF? Did Cillizza even read Trump’s letter linked in CNN’s article? It states:
If you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that certainly is your perogative.
Colbert got this right. Cillizza should have watched his show last night. He explained the true impact of Trump’s letter with this common sense statement after reading the passage in Trump’s letter:
“Alright, she can fly commercial to Afghanistan. I’m sure JetBlue offers daily, non-stop flights to a war zone.
"Again, Pelosi wasn’t on some pleasure cruise here,” Colbert said. “She was visiting the troops and the trip to Afghanistan was a closely held secret due to security concerns. So, basically what Trump’s letter said was, ‘Nancy, feel free to go commercial now that I’ve told the Taliban that you’re coming and staying at the Jalalabad La Quinta Inn.’”
CNN should be doing better than this. Cillizza’s analysis is flawed and unworthy of CNN’s front page, even setting aside that WH aides apparently also leaked that Nancy was flying commercial.