Last fall, Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails revealed that her staff had “planted” questions with CBS News’s 60 Minutes in 2011. Now comes another “plant” story following the former secretary of state’s Democratic Town Hall Debate appearance on CNN Monday night. And it’s all because of a nervous undecided voter.
Brett Rosenberg was so nervous when CNN’s Chris Cuomo called on him to ask Clinton his question, that he accidentally called the former first lady “Secretary Sanders,” and then implied his question — he had yet to ask — was planted. “I can see why they gave you this question,” he laughed before asking Clinton which president had inspired her the most. Spoiler alert: Abraham Lincoln.
Rosenberg’s slip-up sent viewers wondering if CNN had been caught planting questions, just like they’ve been accused of before with the New York Post recently publishing an expose on the network “allowing political plants to flourish.”
https://twitter.com/IHateJoshAustin/status/691833864264798210
#DemTownHall what? He can see why they gave him that question? So everyone was a plant? #CNNtownhall #cnn
— Stranded Viking (@NotThatLars) January 26, 2016
"I can see why they gave you this question" Uh… did that young man just admit CNN wrote all these questions? #DemTownHall
— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) January 26, 2016
https://twitter.com/JarrettSeltzer/status/691833566314008576
https://twitter.com/pyotr_kropotkin/status/691833715010486273
https://twitter.com/pfeiferaz/status/691833738389491713
https://twitter.com/GreenHornet1962/status/691850591321116673
Sorry I went off script, it's my first day
Boss:Yep and your last. Have fun asking questions on Maury
— Adam Compliments (@tunisadam) January 26, 2016
So, was Rosenberg’s question fed to him by CNN or a Clinton staffer? Not quite. Rosenberg tells U.S. Uncut that while his question was his own, CNN did decide who it would go to.
“It was my own question that I had submitted on Saturday night and directed towards any candidate. They chose that candidate to be Clinton.” Guess that settles that.