CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday pushed on President Donald Trump’s incorrect claim that the TV host failed to question Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) on his military record.
“So we have a new tweet,” CNN host Alisyn Camerota said. “There’s a tweet alert.”
“Well, it matters because it’s about me,” Cuomo said.
Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen. Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave “service” in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017
He read aloud the tweet in which Trump called his interview with Blumenthal “fake news.”
“Let’s just, please, just show the top of the interview,” Cuomo said.
Blumenthal told reporters on Wednesday that Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch told him in a meeting that Trump’s tweets about judges “were demoralizing and disheartening,” sparking Trump’s ire.
A spokesman for Gorsuch, Ron Bonjean, confirmed that the Supreme Court nominee made those remarks to Blumenthal.
On Thursday, Trump nevertheless suggested that Blumenthal lied about Gorsuch’s remarks.
In the interview aired earlier Thursday morning, Cuomo asked Blumenthal to respond to Trump’s attack on his credibility.
“What is your response to the President of the United States saying you should not be believed because you misrepresented your military record in the past?” he asked.
“The President, with all due respect, is once again off on the facts,” he said in the later segment. “And that’s not something that any of us have any desire to say on a regular basis but it keeps being true.”
Cuomo said “fake news” is the “worst thing” to call a journalist.
“He just keeps doubling down when the facts don’t favor his position,” he said. “The truth of the matter asserted is about whether or not this judge says what Blumenthal said he said, his own comms guy says it, nobody denies it except the President of the United States, and once again he doubles down when he’s wrong.”
Easily fact checkable false claim from @realDonaldTrump. And @ChrisCuomo brought receipts. Watch:https://t.co/QVB0ZTeX23
— andrew kaczynski ? (@KFILE) February 9, 2017
CNN’s communications team also stepped in to fact-check the President via a tweet posted Thursday.
@realDonaldTrump . @ChrisCuomo did address that point at the start of his interview. https://t.co/JWJEAshv1y Those are the facts.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 9, 2017
The network previously used the phrase “those are the facts,” apparently a new hallmark of its official statements contradicting the Trump administration, with regard to White House claims that CNN retracted concerns about top adviser Kellyanne Conway’s credibility.
