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  6.  » CNN claims reaction to murder of Ukrainian refugee is ‘RACIST’

Melissa Koenig – Daily Mail Sept 9, 2025

CNN‘s Brian Stelter seemed to dismiss the outrage over a career criminal allegedly killing a Ukrainian refugee as racism.

The liberal news network was finally forced to cover the brutal murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on Monday night, after Donald Trump shared his ire over the case and claimed Democrats have blood on their hands.

Zarutska had been simply sitting on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, staring down at her phone, when shocking surveillance footage showed a man slashing at her on August 22.

It was later revealed that the suspect, 35-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr. is a career criminal who was out on bail when he allegedly killed the young woman who fled to the United States amid the ongoing war in her home country.

Many have since expressed their rage at the fact that Brown Jr. was not behind bars despite being arrested at least 14 times.

But Stelter said on Monday night that ‘some of the comments around this story are baldly racist, stoking fear of African Americans because this man attacked a white woman.

‘The open racism on sites like X today, it’s eye-popping,’ he claimed, after arguing that ‘Trump-aligned figures succeeded in makin this senseless death a symbol of big-city crime.

‘This story has trickled up from local news to social media, and now to the president’s attention – and it’s being used… as a political symbol with MAGA media calling for more forceful punishments and more incarceration.’

Still, he acknowledged that there are ‘legitimate questions about this so-called career criminal, someone who had been a repeat offender.’

Stelter concluded: ‘And those questions, I hope they’re not lost amid all of the cesspool kind of comments on social media.’

The media analyst was quickly ridiculed on social media for his comments, with many arguing that the issue is not about race.

‘CNN Brian Stelter said MAGA supporters are making this crime about race, which is a lie!!’ one X user wrote.

‘It’s about the fact this repeat violent criminal should NOT have been out of jail on the streets for having the opportunity to commit this horrific crime!! He should have been in prison.’

The popular LibsofTikTok account also suggested that Stelter is ‘mad that MAGA made Iryna Zarutska’s murder national news when legacy media REFUSED to cover it.’

Echoing that sentiment, another X user wrote: ‘Finally forced to cover the Iryna Zarutska murder, CNN rolls out resident potato Brian Stelter to twist and torture the story into a screed about… racism on the right and on X.’

Stelter’s remarks came just hours after Trump expressed his outrage that Brown Jr. was allowed to walk free on his Truth Social page.

 

 

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