On New Year’s Eve, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez was doing an interview with Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) about terrorism when Sanchez suddenly swung the conversation around to Ensign’s sex/lobbying/pay-off scandal involving two of his former aides.
As TPM noted, the senator seemed caught off guard. But CNN tells us that Sanchez didn’t violate any ground rules.
“There were no pre-conditions for the interview with Sen. Ensign,” a spokesman for CNN wrote in an email.
Sanchez himself defended his interview tactics in a segment the day after the interview.
“Sen. Ensign was made aware that no subject was off the table when he sat down for the interview with me New Year’s Eve,” Sanchez says. He said it’s “not true” that he ambushed the senator.
Ensign’s office has not returned requests for comment.
Watch the original segment:
