Writing Thursday morning at National Review, Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) fellow Nate Hochman penned a scathing examination of CNN political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin, chronicling her rise from a well-known political family to the upper echelons of conservative political communications to liberal media darling and from Trump supporter to skeptic to card-carrying member of The Resistance.
And, upon the story’s publication, Farah Griffin offered a vivid reminder of how the Washington media and political elites have razor-thin skin and vehemently object to even the most gentle outside criticism.
Hochman explained how Farah Griffin has undergone a “change in tone and emphasis” since her start working for her father Joseph Farah at World Net Daily that was then parlayed into running communications for the House Freedom Caucus and Trump administration posts with Vice President Mike Pence, the Pentagon, and the White House as communications director.
As Hochman noted, Farah Griffin seemed like “a conventionally partisan Republican operative.”
However, she’s left that behind, instead drawing a litany of scoffs and dismissals from conservatives as she’s become what Hochman called not only “fervently anti-Trump,” but “sometimes anti-Republican” with newfound friends at CNN and ABC’s The View (where she’s the rumored frontrunner to become the fifth co-host).
Hochman began his piece with her flip-flopping on January 6 (click “expand”):
In a February 2021 appearance on CNN, Alyssa Farah, who had recently stepped down as a communications director for the Trump White House, said it was “important for members of Congress to step up and condemn” the January 6 riot at the Capitol. “And many have done that. I think Kevin McCarthy — you know, I give the leader credit — spoke out very plainly about the president’s role in it.” But when pressed on censuring President Trump, she demurred: “I think it’s an open question for Congress — I’m not going to play judge and jury on that,” she told the CNN host. “But I also think the country needs to move on from this moment. I don’t think we benefit from re-litigating, over and over, what happened that day. We need to be moving forward.”
Three months later, the former Trump official appeared on MSNBC with a different message: “This isn’t going away. So to my friends, to the Kevin McCarthys of the world — this is not just something that you’re going to brush aside.” Five months after that, Farah, who had by then secured a spot as a CNN contributor and was auditioning for the nominal right-wing seat on The View, took an even more forceful line: “We are just acting like this is kind of normal, I feel like we’re just glossing over January 6 and moving on, and we absolutely shouldn’t. The committee is working on it, I hope they get to the bottom of it. But it’s devastating.”
When January 6 becomes your cri de coeur and everything else (e.g. abortion, gas prices, inflation, etc.) is secondary while painting a picture that your life is so difficult while also opulent, working people scoff. Farah Griffin should let the world know when she starts consistently having CNN hits and tweets that have nothing to do with January 6 and Donald Trump.
Hochman made sure to do his homework, citing a behemoth of tweets and past appearances to show her change.
After showing her pivot on election integrity (including a December 2020 comment in which she denounced “irregularities and fraud…in the 2020 elections”), Hochman argued Farah’s pivot to the left didn’t stop with November 2020 and January 6, 2021.
Farah previously claimed in December 2020 that Hunter Biden’s laptop and life of corruption was “a huge issue,” but by March 2022, she mocked discussion of Hunter Biden as a topic that doesn’t “even rank in the top 100 issues facing American voters.”
Hochman lowered the boom even further when he called out Farah’s glossy, nauseating profile in Vanity Fair (which was clearly peddled by an agent and/or PR team) and commented about both Trump and Miles Taylor (aka “Anonymous”) (click “expand”):
In terms of Trump himself, Farah Griffin maintains that she “didn’t have any illusions about who the president was.” In a glowing May Vanity Fair profile, replete with glamorous photos of Farah sipping cocktails and posing in limos, she argued: “I’m not somebody who drank the Kool-Aid for five years and then magically found Jesus on January 6.” But that, too, is at odds with her public statements in the White House. In one video taken during her time in the administration, she describes her first time meeting Trump: “I was smiling so wide because I was just excited to see him.” In having “gotten to spend quite a bit of time with him” in following months, she added, “I remember this every day as I walk on the campus — just to stop, say a quick prayer of thank you and gratitude” every day “that I get to serve this particular president.” She went on: “He’s a remarkable man. The more time you spend with him behind closed doors, the more you understand what makes him such a strong leader for our nation.” At the same time, she attacked Miles Taylor — the erstwhile midlevel Trump official who penned the infamous anonymous New York Times op-ed about the “resistance” within the White House — as “confirm[ing] that “Never Trumpers are trying to thwart POTUS.” In January 2021, she told Politico that she didn’t “have respect” for Taylor. A year later, however, she was participating in group phone calls led by Taylor “to discuss efforts to fend off [Trump’s] efforts to, in their view, erode the democratic process,” according to CNN.
He was certainly fair in conceding she occasionally shows she still has “some conservative positions,” but he quickly added they evaporate anytime Trump is even tangentially involved.
Hochman closed with a devastating citation of how Farah insisted to Vanity Fair that “at no point in my entire life was my goal to be on TV and be a talking head” and, based on even a cursory examination, “it’s hard to see her political transformation as anything other than an audition for the mainstream spotlight” and make money.
Hochman asked her for comment and, in the piece, she showed her rank elitism: “I reject the premise that my fundamental views have changed. But I’m fiercely anti insurrection [sic]…I do, however, think that most people who have served in the highest levels of government, who hold the highest level security clearances, as I do, often become less dogmatic in their views as they learn more.”
And there it is. All roads have to lead back to January 6.
On a separate note, notice how Farah Griffin flaunts her security clearances as proof those of us who aren’t on her level should submit to her ideology.
Once the piece went live, she uncorked a Twitter thread doing more of the same while admitting she hadn’t read the piece.
Personal thread 🧵: National Review has a piece out on me about how I’ve “changed.” I didn’t read it but want to share this for those who don’t know: I worked for VP Mike Pence for 2 years. I will always be grateful &honored to have served in that role.
— Alyssa Farah Griffin 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 (@Alyssafarah) July 14, 2022
Exit question: Did Alyssa think she’s too important to have to read it?