VFW says CNN remarks blaming vets for Baltimore violence is ‘insulting’

One of the nation’s leading veterans organizations is urging its members to contact CNN on Wednesday after one of its anchors accused military veterans of provoking violence in communities, like the riots in Baltimore.

John Stroud, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, called comments from CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin “insulting” to those who served the country in the military.

“No one wants peace more than those who wear the badge and those who wear the uniform,” Mr. Stroud said in a statement. “To have someone in the press make a personal statement that, apology or not, accuses military veterans as being the aggressors is as unacceptable as it is insulting.

“Our country should celebrate the fact that highly trained and motivated veterans are choosing to continue serving their nation and communities as police officers — a profession, just like the military, that most Americans would fail even the most basic entrance requirements,” he said. “Journalistic standards should demand better than accusatory statements made without any facts or reality.”

Ms. Baldwin was reporting live from the riots in Baltimore on Tuesday when she alleged that veterans who left the service and became police officers may be partly to blame for recent violence in communities around the country.

“I love our nations veterans, but some of them are coming back from war, they don’t know the communities and they’re ready to do battle,” she said.

On Wednesday morning, Ms. Baldwin made an apology on air, saying that she had “the utmost respect for our men and women in uniform.”

“I made a mistake yesterday,” she said. “I absolutely misspoke. I inartfully chose my words 100 percent. And I just wish in speaking to all of you this morning, I wholeheartedly retract what I said.”

The VFW is asking all members, veterans and military families to view her remarks and contact CNN through a viewer feedback page “if so compelled.”