Chris Cuomo refutes Trump tweet accusing him of peddling ‘fake news’

Gabby Kaufman
·Reporter

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo pushed back on Thursday after President Trump dismissed one of his interviews as “fake news.” Cuomo defended his credibility on air and in an extended flurry of tweets throughout the morning.

Trump started the morning spat by ripping Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on Twitter, suggesting that he was not a trustworthy source because he had misrepresented his military record in the past. Blumenthal had told reporters that Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, had called the president’s attacks on federal judges “disheartening” and “demoralizing.”

Cuomo subsequently interviewed Blumenthal about his meeting with Gorsuch, who faces confirmation in the U.S. Senate.

The “New Day” host addressed Trump’s tweet, asking, “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?”

The president, an avid watcher of cable news, then tweeted erroneously that Cuomo had “never asked [Blumenthal] about his long-term lie.” During his 2010 Senate race, Blumenthal apologized after he was challenged about having claimed, inaccurately, that he had served in Vietnam.

Shortly after the critical tweet was posted, Cuomo read it on air, following it with a replay of the beginning of his interview with Blumenthal. Cuomo noted that Blumenthal’s claim about his military service was “literally the first point that I made in the interview.”

“The president, with all due respect, is once again off on the facts,” Cuomo said. “And that’s not something that any of us have any desire to say on a regular basis, but it keeps being true.”

“’Fake news’ is the worst thing that you can call a journalist,” Cuomo continued. “It’s like an ethnic disparagement. We all have these ugly words for people, that’s the one for journalists.”

In the segment, Cuomo acknowledged that Blumenthal had dodged his question, but said that the heart of the issue at hand was whether Gorsuch had in fact called Trump’s criticism of federal judges “demoralizing” and “disheartening.” Former Republican New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is working on behalf of the Trump administration to guide Gorsuch through the confirmation process, confirmed that Gorsuch had made these comments.

Later, Cuomo, who is known for engaging with viewers on Twitter, continued to bat back at Trump’s criticism of him, asserting that the president likes to brand as “fake news” stories that are negative toward him, rather than untrue.

Interestingly, despite having been the target of a Twitter attack by the president, Cuomo disagreed with someone who suggested that Trump’s account should be shut down, arguing that this direct reflection of his views of the moment, unprecedented in U.S. presidential politics, provides a “clear window” into the president’s thinking.

Signing off at the end of his Twitter flurry, Cuomo said that he ultimately valued the criticism from his viewers, “good bad and ugly.”

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