***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
For months now, the Trump administration has been trying to get Turkey hand over American Christian pastor Andrew Brunson after he was arrested on what have been described as trumped-up charges linked to the failed military coup attempt in 2016. But during Monday’s NBC Nightly News, the network just wasn’t having it and was worried President Trump was the one hurting the relationship with a NATO ally.
Despite the fact that there was robust debate about whether or not Turkey really should be in NATO given the country’s totalitarian tendencies and closeness with the alliance’s enemy (Russia), anchor Lester Holt began the segment by declaring, “Tensions are reaching a boiling point between the U.S. and one of its NATO allies tonight.”
Further disapproving of the U.S.’s more recent efforts to get an American citizen home, Holt noted that “Turkey is accusing the U.S. of trying to tank its economy after President Trump ordered new sanctions.” And in what appeared to some form of huff about the cost of retrieving one of his fellow citizens being too high, he added, “as our chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel explains, it can all be traced back to a fight over one American citizen.”
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