CNN analyst walks back comments calling for violent breakup of Freedom Convoy - New York Post

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A CNN contributor and former Obama administration official is switching gears after publishing a pair of incendiary tweets in which she called for aggressive actions to end the Freedom Convoy.

Juliette Kayyem said there should have been no mercy for the truckers who blocked the Ambassador Bridge connecting the US and Canada.

“The Ambassador Bridge link constitutes 28% of annual trade movement between US and Canada. Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks,” Kayyem said in a Thursday twitter rant to her nearly 200,000 followers, calling it an “economic and security issue.”

Border-crossing Canadian truckers have snarled traffic and commerce for weeks to protest the country’s vaccine mandate. The movement has attracted significant grassroots support and many truckers say they won’t go home until all coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has so far refused to meet with the protesters in Ottawa, the nation’s capital.

Freedom Convoy truckers have blocked The Ambassador Bridge which connects The US to Canada and say they won’t stop protesting until Canada lifts all COVID-19 restrictions.

REUTERS

Kayyem is a former assistant secretary of homeland security for President Barack Obama. As online outrage grew, she initially doubled down.

“Trust me, I will not run out of ways to make this hurt: cancel their insurance; suspend their drivers licenses; prohibit any future regulatory certification for truckers, etc. Have we learned nothing? These things fester when there are no consequences,” she said.

Kayyem left the offending remarks up, returning to Twitter later that night to claim her words were being misconstrued.

Juliette Kayyem had initially stood by her statements calling the trucker’s protest an “economic security issue,” but later clarified she was not promoting vigilantism.

Juliette Kayyem/Twitter

“Earlier today, I tweeted something that has been used by others to suggest I was promoting vigilantism. I was not. People have the freedom to protest. Governments have the responsibility to protect public safety. That was what I intended to say,” Kayyem wrote.

Reps for CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.

So far Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has refused to meet with the protestors.

REUTERS

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