The liberal media have been circling and acting as though they smell blood in the water since The Washington Post reported that close Trump adviser, Jared Kushner wanted to set up a back channel with the Russians so Trump could discuss Syria. This, on top of reports that investigators would like to simply talk with Kushner and ask him some questions. The prowling continued on CNN’s Inside Politics on Sunday, where they painted Kushner as “treasonous” before offhandedly noting that he was not a target roughly 50 minutes later.

“He's among several Trump loyalists whose repeated campaign Russia-election contacts alarmed U.S. intelligence officials,” declared host John King at the start of the segment. He then played a clip of former CIA Director John Brennan telling a Congressional committee:

Frequently, individuals who go along a treasonous path do not even realize they’re along that path until it gets to be a bit too late. And that’s why, again, my radar goes up early when I see certain things when I know what the Russians are trying to do and I don't know whether or not the targets of their efforts are as mindful of the Russian intentions as they need to be.

It’s ironic that they’re trusting the word of the same John Brennan whose agency was caught in “the unprecedented hacking of congressional staff computers,” according to a statement by Democratic Senator Mark Udall in 2014. According to a report from The Washington Post back then, “CIA employees improperly searched computers used by Senate investigators involved in a multi-year probe of the agency’s use of harsh interrogation measures on terrorism suspects.” Of which, Brennan lied to Congress and to the public about and wasn’t punished for.

But never the less, King bought into Brennan’s testimony about people in the Trump administration like Kushner. “Let begin with a question: Is this a little odd, but okay or is this the act of someone, as you just heard from the former CIA Director, someone on a treasonous path,” he asked his panel of journalists. He further coached them on the answer he was looking for by adding:

Kushner says this back channel needs to be hush-hush and The Washington Post says the Russian ambassador told his bosses in Moscow that Kushner proposed using Russian diplomatic facilities for these calls, presumably so that U.S. intelligence agencies would have a harder time eavesdropping.

King appears to be admitting that the media was just making presumptions about Kushner’s intent and actions.

After noting that the White House has yet to put forward an explanation, and their Sunday meetings to discuss it, CNN reporter Jeff Zeleny smeared Kushner, saying: “It's naive at best, it may be something more at worst, we don’t know the answer. Even though he was a private citizen, this is not a business deal.” And from there panel speculated about Kushner’s dealings and future for several minutes, before moving on to other topics.

It took them roughly 50 minutes since the notion that Kushner’s actions were “treasonous” and “un-American,” according to King, were floated to mention that he was not a target for investigators. “The reality here is: this is all settling into the West Wing, yes, he's not specifically the subject or the target of the investigation, but he is front and center in the middle of it now,” Zeleny said near the end of the show. If he’s not the target, how can he be “front and center?” The real reality here is: Kushner is only front and center for the media.

Zeleny came up with an explanation that the White House could possibly use. “The best defense explanation so far, “If he was back-channeling with the Russians, he wasn't colluding with them during the campaign,” he said. He quickly dismissed it as “not the best answer” for them. But he never explained why that was. Zeleny might have just realized that it punches a very big hole in their Trump/Russian election collusion narrative.

Transcript below: