CNN analyst Asha Rangappa defended Valerie Plame's congressional campaign after a fundraising email for her campaign identified her as a "CIA Agent" instead of a "CIA case officer."
Journalist Yashar Ali posted on Twitter a fundraising email from Plame's campaign which falsely describes Plame as a "former CIA Agent," even though Plame never served as an agent for the intelligence agency and instead served as a CIA case officer during her two-decade career.
Rangappa, a former FBI agent and legal analyst for CNN, quickly responded trying to deflect blame from Plame for the error.
"I'm sure it's one of her staff," she replied back to Ali's original tweet.
https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1146189552849235968
Rangappa has worked as an analyst for CNN for the past few years and has recently commentated on issues related to the FBI and national security including former Special Counselor Robert Mueller's investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
In a glowing profile from Elle, the magazine described Rangappa as "measured and authoritative, an expert rather than a partisan," who "wields no pitchforks, just an invocation of law and process, an appeal to common cause" in her commentary.
Plame, who gained notoriety in the earlier 2000s when her work for the CIA was outed by the George W. Bush administration, is currently running for the Democratic nomination for New Mexico's 3rd congressional district which is open as incumbent Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.) is running for Senate. Her identity as a CIA officer was leaked to the press after her then-husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, wrote an op-ed criticizing the Bush administration for their decision to invade Iraq.
Since launching her campaign, Plame has had to answer for allegations she holds anti-Semitic views after she shared tweets in 2017 highlighting a story with the title, "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars." The article was hosted on a website ran and operated by a known Holocaust denier.
In the now deleted tweets, Plame said the article was "very provocative, but thoughtful," and urged her followers to "Read the entire article and try, just for a moment, to put aside your biases and think clearly."
She additionally had shared an article titled "Why I Still Dislike Israel."
In an interview with MSNBC after announcing her campaign, Plame attempted to apologize for sharing the anti-Semitic articles saying she had not read the articles all the way through despite insisting to her followers to "read the entire article."