Republican Georgia State Sen. Michael Williams made an appearance on CNN Newsroom on Tuesday to push back against Delta Airlines for ending their discount program for members of the National Rifles Association (NRA). He ended up getting called out by Brianna Keilar for making an unproven claim about the airline and Planned Parenthood.
“If they’re gonna pull the discount for NRA members, why not pull it for Planned Parenthood?” said Williams.
Kielar then asked, “Where are you getting that, that Delta gives a discount to Planned Parenthood members?” She went on to say that, other than in right-wing blogs, the team at CNN hasn’t been able to find evidence that the claim is true.
When pressed about where he got the information from, Williams said that he and other lawmakers had Googled the information the day prior during a meeting; unable to remember his source, he offered to have his campaign send the information to Keilar afterwards.
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A state senator from Georgia claimed Delta offers discounts to Planned Parenthood. When @brikeilarcnn pressed him for evidence, the lawmaker said that he "looked it up on Google" https://t.co/uKaJwJPH53 pic.twitter.com/xiW611dAE6
— CNN (@CNN) February 28, 2018
After Keilar repeated that there was no proof to suggest that Planned Parenthood receives discounts from Delta, Williams sidestepped the issue and insisted that he “firmly” believes the airline currently gives discount benefits to left-leaning organizations.
“But if you’re making an argument, shouldn’t you have your facts straight?” asked Keilar.
At this point, Williams attempted to turn the argument around on the anchor asking her if she was denying that Delta was giving member benefits to progressive groups.
“No, you told me that it was Planned Parenthood, I’m just talking to you about what you said to me,” she said.
“Is that not a left-leaning organization?” Williams shot back.
“There’s no indication [Delta] is giving discounts to that organization is my point,” Keilar responded.
Williams had no other choice but to say “agree to disagree” and offered to come onto the show again with the proper information.
Good on CNN and Keilar for not allowing a legislator to spread lies on television.
