At times during Alisyn Camerota‘s Tuesday morning interview with Congressman Sean Duffy (R., WI), the topics that the Republican pol defended left the CNN New Day anchor visibly confused. The two battled over a wide-ranging set of issues stemming from claims by the White House that the mainstream media is “under-reporting” on certain terror attacks.

While Duffy certainly did his best to play the role of supportive GOP elected official willing to go to bat for whatever the Trump administration thinks of next, Camerota sharply rebuked the more outlandish of his assertions. “Refugees have spent two years being vetted,” Camerota said. “They have biometric fingerprinting, they have interviews. So what part isn’t being vetted?”

Duffy danced around his responses before settling on his defense of the President’s travel ban, calling simply for 90 days — or in some cases, much longer — more. “It’s a pause to make sure we’re doing this correctly… this is simply common sense stuff.”

“Congressman, look… what I hear you saying is that Americans should be very worried about terrorism around the globe,” the New Day anchor continued, but noted that there is a greater statistical likelihood of being killed by lighting, something that Camerota and her cohost Chris Cuomo have reported on before.

Duffy tried to use that talking point against Camerota, indicating it was disrespectful to people who have lost their lives to racial Islamism to be flippantly compared to lightning strikes. But when he continued by saying that only people who visited the grief-stricken communities of Orlando or Belgium or Nice, France could understand, Camerota put her foot down.

“I did Congressman. I went to all those places,” she said sharply, defending the network’s coverage of those tragic stories; and when she said that love was the key to the healing in those places, Duffy bizarrely blurted out:

“I’m a lover Alisyn! I’m a lover too!”

But when the debate shifted to be a referendum about statistics — ie., patterns of radical Islamic attacks vs. those of white extremists, like the recent Quebec Mosque Attack — Duffy seemed to indicate ISIS-inspired attacks number in the “dozens” while the rest are just one-offs.

“Hold on a second. Hold on a second Congressman,” Camerota said steadily.

“Bring it on, Alisyn!” Duffy replied. Camerota seemed incredulous at his eventual response, a ramble of doublespeak and repetition that she eventually let go.

Watch above via CNN.

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[image via screengrab]

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