Daniel Hannan, a conservative Member of the European Parliament representing South East England and one of the most vocal advocates in favor of #Brexit, had a “fiery exchange” with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, in which Hannan repeatedly rejected Amanpour’s attempts to smear Leave supporters as racist and pushed back against her accusations that he had made misrepresentations.
The interview, which aired on Tuesday, featured Amanpour questioning Hannan for details about how Britain’s exit from the European Union would be accomplished.
Here’s the video, with a few seconds shy of nine minutes of Hannan smacking down rudeness and ridiculousness from Amanpour over and over and over again:
Amanpour kicked off the interview demanding a “plan” from Hannan, complaining that she had not heard plans suggested by pro-Leave politicians, only from Prime Minister David Cameron. When Hannan pointed out that the Prime Minister is the person who actually has the political power to set plans in motion, the hostility ratcheted up a notch.
“He is still the Prime Minister,” Hannan said, pointedly. “So, in a way, you’re assigning responsibility without power. You’re saying, ‘what do we want to do’ when we’re not yet in office, right?”
He suggested a good first step would be for Cameron to quickly appoint one of the Leave campaigners to spearhead the negotiations, and attempts to explain how it’s “no secret” what’s coming up next: “a repatriation of power” from the EU back to the British Parliament.
Hannan continued, saying that it would be necessary to respect the fact that it had been a close vote, and “two of the four nations within the UK voted for the status quo,” meaning Scotland and Northern Ireland. This meant, according to Hannan, that “a more gradual and more phased repatriation of power” may be prudent.
Amanpour responded to this by accusing Hannan of “stepping back” some of his rhetoric during the campaign.
“What have I stepped back from?” he asked, repeatedly asking her to give him a quote when he had said the opposite of what he was saying then.
Amanpour then turned to blaming Leave voters for being motivated by anti-immigrant rhetoric, and throwing some guilt-by-association at Hannan.
“Listen…the reason people voted, the majority of them, and I can play you what was said, was to stop immigration into this country,” she said, as Hannan continued to insist that he himself had not backtracked on his comments, pointing out that he had written a book advocating reasons to vote Leave but hadn’t actually said what she accused him of saying.
Amanpour pressed on. “Would you agree then that the Leave campaign’s main objective, in terms of sovereignty, was to stop the free movement [of people]?”
Hannah grinned in obvious disbelief, and asked Amanpour to retract the accusation of backtracking. She refused.
“Then people at home can Google this, they can look at what I’ve said, and they can see whether it is fair for you to accuse me of having done a U-turn,” Hannan said, as Amanpour continued to talk over him.
After some more back-and-forth as Hannan insisted he had not campaigned on specific numbers or an outright immigration ban, he explained that the issue was that Britain, not the EU, should be making those decisions about immigration. “What we said is that we would take back control,” he said, adding that immigration levels “should be a question for parliamentary sovereignty.”
Amanpour asked if the Parliament could result in the same number of people coming in, and Hannan answered, “That would be a decision for Parliament. That’s how democracy works.”
“You have got to be kidding me!” Amanpour replied, the sarcasm evident in her voice. “This whole thing was run on immigration…”
“You guys have been shouting ‘racist!’ so long you weren’t listening to what we’ve actually been saying!” Hannan retorted.
“You retract that right now!” Amanpour pouted, suddenly not liking words being put in her mouth. “Did I say that? Did I say that?” she repeated as Hannan again asked, “When have I ever made immigration my issue?”
Watching the entire video, besides the obvious rudeness in Amanpour’s ceaseless interruptions, it’s clear that she is repeatedly attempting to assign responsibility to Hannan for comments and arguments put forward by other Leave supporters, and to paint the entire group as racist, despite her protestations to the contrary.
At one point she even demands that he takes responsibility for “hate crimes,” and lists “graffiti” and “hurling of insults.” Hannan quite justifiably rejects Amanpour’s attempts to prove a connection as “outrageous.”
“If I was relying on CNN as my only source of evidence, I would think that this was a nativist vote, a protectionist vote,” said an irritated Hannan. “It’s the opposite. We are a global country and we can do better than just a regional association.”
As for Amanpour, she self-righteously declared herself a journalist on a “mission” to separate “truths and myths.” in an article she wrote about the interview for CNN.com. “I insist, and always have done, on operating in the fact-based world,” she declared.
Besides the fact that Amanpour’s argument is profoundly unfair, it meant that she missed the opportunity to get answers about what Britain should expect from Brexit, from one of the core Leave campaigners, someone with a unique expertise from his years actually working in the European Parliament. The entire free world has been transfixed by this vote and the process, and she botched the chance at a truly historic discussion.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker