By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
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The alternative facts that permeated the White House briefing room on the first day that BlackPressUSA.com served in the pool reporting didn’t just come from the podium. Still, several far-right journalists joined in the misinformation and dog whistles that have generally shrouded such overcrowded gatherings in the James S. Brady Briefing Room just off the West Wing of the White House. As White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt continued her boss’s vicious attacks on former President Joe Biden and made it evident that Trump believes any judge that goes against his controversial policies should be impeached, several of the administration’s favorite outlets made sure they’d join the rhetoric.
But Leavitt did shut down Elad Eliahu, a journalist with a small media outlet called TimCast, who has been accused of inciting violence against pro-Palestine protestors among several documented and alleged transgressions. Eliahu, standing in front of two Black journalists – and misidentifying a Black female journalist as Abby Phillips – likely thought he’d get a favorable ear from Leavitt with a question about convicted Minnesota Police Officer Derek Chavin that was biting with racist overtones. Chauvin is serving more than 20 years in prison for the 2020 murder of George Floyd, an incident that kicked off a global Black Lives Matter Movement. “Black Lives Matter ‘rioters’ had these jurors under immense threats and pressure,” Eliahu began, under the guise of what he later said was, “asking as a journalist.”
“Mainstream media, frankly many here were complicit,” Eliahu continued as his eyes darted to the overflowing crowd stuffed into the briefing room in the manner the president doesn’t mind jamming immigrants onto airplanes and into prisons abroad. “They choose to ignore the autopsy report; they choose to ignore the full body camera footage,” he insisted. “They decided to slander Derek Chauvin as a racist cop instead. Does the administration believe Chauvin received a fair trial, and will they consider a pardon moving forward?” Leavitt was quick to respond. “The president has been asked this question and has said it’s not something he’s considered at this time,” she stated.
When BlackPressUSA.com asked what prompted the question, particularly as nearly all the questions surrounded immigrants, judges, and the ongoing ceasefire negotiations Trump is holding with Russia and Ukraine, Eliahu claimed he was only doing what any other journalist would do. “What prompted my question was, as I said,” he said in a recorded conversation with BlackPressUSA.com, incredulously implying that he had addressed that at the beginning. “Some prominent Trump supporters have been making that case.” Eliahu was then asked his thoughts about the Chauvin case. “I’m not sure,” he claimed. “I’m just a journalist just asking the question.”
