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Alan Dershowitz blasts CNN, MSNBC for editing Trump's speech before riots, claims he wanted 'peaceful' protest

During his appearance on the channel, the Harvard law professor also spoke about how the nation is going through a censorship crisis as free speech remains under threat

Author and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz is never one to mince his words when defending Donald Trump. He might not be on the former President's impeachment trial defense team but he is leaving no stone unturned to side with the former POTUS. He now claims that Trump had actually called for a "peaceful, patriotic protest" and not a mob siege of the Capitol. However, the speech was cherry-picked by the media leading to the chaos that ensued, he claimed. 

On Monday, February 1, he appeared on Newsmax TV to speak to John Bachman about Trump's involvement in the storming of the Capitol that took place on January 6 and put the entire blame on news channels. This time around, not only did Dershowitz defend the language used by Trump on that fateful day but also called out news channels for allegedly steering the course of the debate in the wrong direction and tainting public opinion of the former president. 

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"He said he wanted a peaceful, patriotic protest," Dershowitz said of Trump's rally remarks ahead of a violent mob's breach of the Capitol that led to five deaths. "But if you watch CBS, PBS, CNN... MSNBC... the president never said 'peaceful protest'," Dershowitz lamented. "That's the way we learn our history. We learn it from channels that now doctor tapes and edit things out," he said.

Citing an instance from 2017, Dershowitz added that the media edited out Trump's controversial remarks following the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. "Many Americans don’t know that when the president said, 'There are good people on both sides. And I may exclude Nazis and white nationalists.' You don’t know that because much of the media simply picks and chooses which words to show the American public."

During his appearance on the channel, Dershowitz also discussed how the nation is going through a censorship crisis as free speech remains under threat. "We're seeing a real attack on freedom of speech in America," he said, adding, "And if a president were ever to be impeached for making a constitutionally protected speech, or if lawyers would be disbarred for making constitutionally protected speech... I think it would be the worst attack on our First Amendment since McCarthyism." 

"And in some ways even worse than McCarthyism, because the people making the attack are our future leaders . . . young people, not the last dying gasp of an old McCarthyism," he concluded.

Shortly after the riots, the controversial Dershowitz had said that Trump's encouragement of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol was a "constitutionally protected" speech. There was rhetoric doing the rounds that free speech was at threat in the country and that the big tech is shutting down any and all dissenting voices — particularly those coming from Trump's conservative followers, he had allegedly said. 

Now, many on social media have concurred with Dershowitz. "Unedited and truthful @AlanDersh @benshapiro #trumps speech was constitutional, the people who support him are peaceful. The attacks were planned by @NancyMace and her minions to start a new narrative against #conservative," one tweeted.

"I just heard Alan Dershowitz say that CNN and Frontline (PBS) have both edited out the words 'peaceful and patriotic protest' from their coverage of Trump's speech and the Capitol breach, so audiences don't know he said that. We live in evil times," another added. 

However, some others on social media pointed out the reality of what is happening. "Given Alan Dershowitz history with Epstein and Donald Trump, Harvard must severed all ties. This is not about freedom of speech but holding people accountable for the words they say and actions they do."