Report: CNN Caught Trying to Spread Opposition Research in Alaska

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2019 fle photo, Alaska Department of Administration Commissioner
AP Photo/Mark Thiessen

CNN has reportedly attempted to spread opposition research in Alaska against Kelly Tshibaka, a pro-Trump primary challenger to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

A CNN publicist apparently reached out to a smaller Alaskan news site with 20,000 readers a day called Must Read Alaska to share an article CNN published to presumably discredit Tshibaka’s senate candidacy against Murkowski.

“A CNN publicist reached out to Must Read Alaska to make sure this news organization saw the story CNN posted: Senatorial candidate Tshibaka is a conservative and should be framed as a Trump-supporter and — gasp — a Christian,” Must Read Alaska wrote. “It is passing strange that a major news network would reach out to a tiny political blog published from “Somewhere in Alaska” to see if the blog would bite on that big scoop. We’ve never heard from CNN before, so why now?”

“We’ve seen the CNN playbook — the one it used on Trump,” The publication continued. “We know the operatives disguised as reporters are gunning for Kelly.”

Tshibaka told Breitbart News via email CNN’s “attack” is “proof that our campaign is gaining momentum, which has Lisa Murkowski and her allies scared to death.”

“Nothing frightens the DC political insiders more than the thought of a strong, independent Alaskan leader in their ranks. If CNN is coming after us, we must be winning… This is what CNN does,” she explained.

CNN has reportedly alleged to Must Read Alaska that Tshibaka “spread baseless conspiracies about the 2020 election, alleging widespread voter fraud in key states, which has been disproven.”

But Tshibaka said in response, “It’s only logical that we apply the same standards that Democrats established in the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections. Allegations regarding voting integrity should be investigated and fully examined.”

CNN’s KFile additionally purported “a post on the internet years ago where Tshibaka said the ‘Twilight’ book and movie series is ‘evil’ and not something people should read because it ‘leaves us spiritually vulnerable.'”

To this opposition research, Tshibaka explained, “Children should definitely read more, but the Twilight books don’t hold a candle to Dr. Seuss books, which are today being canceled by the left.”

I think Alaskans will care more about who will protect their gas and oil jobs than they do about young adult vampire fiction,” she retorted.

KFile also attempted to raise concerns about a 20 year old article Tshibaka wrote while she attended Harvard Law School that CNN claims is anti-gay “rhetoric used to advance political agendas.”

However, Tshibaka has since clarified her views on gay marriage:

I strongly believe that we should treat all people with respect and dignity. The student article was assigned to me by an editor as a counterpoint piece about 20 years ago, and I don’t hold that point of view today. I personally believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, but the Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is the law of the land.

CNN’s reported opposition research hit piece, said to be “planted… at other Alaska news organizations,” comes after James O’Keefe of Project Veritas publicly embarrassed CNN in several videos for engaging in “propaganda” in the 2020 election cycle.

In one of the videos, O’Keefe spoke to CNN’s Technical Director Charlie Chester about his stated “focus” on pushing “Trump out of office.”

Breitbart News reported, “O’Keefe walking into a diner where Chester was eating breakfast with a Project Veritas informant, who had previously left the table, allowing O’Keefe to slide into Chester’s booth to confront him about a recently released tape in which Chester was recorded saying, ‘Look what we did, we got Trump out.'”

“I am 100 percent going to say it, and I 100 percent believe that if it wasn’t for CNN, I don’t know that Trump would have got voted out. … I came to CNN because I wanted to be a part of that,” the CNN director admitted on video.

Twitter has since canceled O’Keefe’s Twitter account for operating fake accounts, according to O’Keefe, who has sued Twitter for defamation.

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