{"id":4189,"date":"2026-07-31T12:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4189"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:37:19","slug":"cnn-rolls-tape-of-trump-energy-secretary-appearing-to-lie-to-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4189","title":{"rendered":"CNN rolls tape of Trump energy secretary appearing to lie to Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Secretary of Energy Chris Wright may have lied to Congress about the role politics played in cancelling energy grants to Democratic states, according to a CNN supercut that aired Friday.<\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Victor Blackwell rolled the tape after lawyers for the Trump administration admitted in a July 15 court filing that \u201cthe inclusion of grants in the October notice was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient state, i.e., whether the recipients location was in a blue state or a non blue state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that is not what the energy secretary said to Congress a few months ago,\u201d Blackwell noted.<\/p>\n

The host then played a clip of Wright speaking with the House Appropriations Committee. In that April 15 meeting, Wright insisted \u201cour project review process did not take into account any politics in the evaluation of these projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Rosa Delauro (D-CT) took immediate issue with Wright\u2019s claim during that hearing, telling the energy secretary \u201cthe district court this January found that this violated the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican strategist Melik Abdul was quick to condemn the Trump administration for politicizing aid. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just unacceptable,\u201d Abdul said. \u201cAnd I think the White House knows this. I was actually surprised that it’s something that they owned up to. I guess maybe they didn’t have a choice since it was in court, they really didn’t have a choice. But this is something that no one should support at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdul went on to shame the administration for \u201cdoing it for political reasons and admitting you’re doing it for political reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don’t know how you can defend it,\u201d Abdul added.<\/p>\n

Former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams agreed, noting that while the Trump administration \u201chad no choice\u201d but to admit to the political nature of their grant decisions \u201cbecause they were in court \u2026 they are [also] shameless about their behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think you’ve seen the president in the White House just acting with impunity on things like this, thinking that it’s politically popular with their base and that they can string things out in the courts long enough and just to make it go away,\u201d Williams added.<\/p>\n

The former federal prosecutor noted if Democrats take the House of Representatives in the fall, \u201cthis is precisely the kind of thing that would get congressional oversight in the form of hearings or letters or investigations or whatever else.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\u201cI also think just the big one that dogs the Trump administration and so many things is process,\u201d Williams added. “Did they properly follow the process that the law lays out in canceling grants? And they can be sued over that as well. And so we have not seen the end of this story in the courts. But like so many other things, the political question, as much as it’s a legal one.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more CNN\u2019s Jennings stunned into silence as pundit challenges him to call McConnell on live TV<\/a><\/p>\n