Late last week, CNN was forced to remove a story that falsely claimed former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci was being investigated by Congress for alleged ties to a Russian bank. And on Tuesday, President Trump took to Twitter to rub the fake news in CNN’s face after three people involved with the story resigned. CBS took acceptation with Trump’s gloating and whined about it during CBS Evening News, later that day. “And now to the White House where tensions between the administration and the news media are growing,” announced Anchor Anthony Mason at the start of the segment.
White House Correspondent Major Garrett started his report by reading Trump’s scornful tweet. “’Wow, CNN had to retract big story on Russia with three employees forced to resign,’ the President wrote. ‘What about all the other phony stories they do? Fake news,’” he read. Garrett appeared to stick up for CNN, noting how they had apologized to Scaramucci for dragging his name through the mud.
Garrett wagged a reproving finger at Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for daring to bring up CNN’s fake story at the press briefing on Tuesday, despite the apology. “We've been going on this Russia/Trump hoax for the better part of a year now with no evidence of anything. America is, frankly, looking for something better,” Huckabee Sanders said to the press pool.
The CBS correspondent admitted that most people don’t believe the media, citing a Gallup poll that found 32 percent of Americans mistrust the media. But like a bandit that was caught stealing, Garrett pointed a finger and Trump. “But the White House has credibility issues of its own,” he deflected.
He rambled on about how The New York Times “accused the President of saying something false every day for the first 40 days of his administration.” Reading from the hit piece, Garrett said: “There is simply no precedent for an American president to spend so much time telling untruths … He is trying to create an atmosphere in which reality is irrelevant."
During the press briefing a reporter for The Sentinel, Brian Karem, blew a gasket and lambasted Huckabee Sanders and Trump for calling the press out on their fake news stories. Garrett actually touted Karem’s out-of-turn outburst, claiming he was venting “his frustration with the Trump press team.”
“The White House tried to use the CNN story to brand all Russia-related news as phony,” Garrett prefaced as he tried to mock the President. “But, Anthony here's what's not phony: Two congressional investigations and a special counsel probe into the matter.”
But what Garrett failed to mention was the undercover video also released on Tuesday by Project Veritas, which exposed CNN producer John Bonifield admitting the Russia story was “mostly bulls—t right now...” Bonifield also admitted that his network kept pushing the Russia story because of the ratings.
And despite Garrett’s mocking of the President by noting the investigations, the CNN producer told the undercover operative that right now investigators are turning up nothing. “I don’t know. If they were finding something, we would know about it,” he explained. “The way these leaks happen, they would leak it. They’d leak. If it was something really good, it would leak.”
This is why the public’s trust in the media is in the toilet. And this is how the White House will continue to have ammunition to fight off the liberal media obsessed with bringing it down.
Transcript below:
CBS Evening News
June 27, 2017
6:33:45 PM EasternANTHONY MASON: And now to the White House where tensions between the administration and the news media are growing. Major Garrett is there.
[Cuts to video]
DONALD TRUMP: So I'll ask the press to leave. I greatly appreciate you folks being here.
MAJOR GARRETT: President Trump tried to make nice with the press this afternoon hours after assailing CNN on Twitter. "Wow, CNN had to retract big story on Russia with three employees forced to resign," the President wrote. "What about all the other phony stories they do? Fake news." CNN retracted and apologized for an online story linking former Trump aid Anthony Scaramucci with a Russian bank. The network also announced the resignation of three employees.
Scaramuci accepted the network's apology, but Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pounced.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: We've been going on this Russia/Trump hoax for the better part of a year now with no evidence of anything. America is, frankly, looking for something better.
GARRETT: Last year a Gallup poll found only 32 percent of Americans had a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. Among Republicans, the number was 14 percent. But the White House has credibility issues of its own.
The New York Times has accused the President of saying something false every day for the first 40 days of his administration. "There is simply no precedent for an American president to spend so much time telling untruths,” The Times wrote last week. "He is trying to create an atmosphere in which reality is irrelevant."
Today, Brian Karem of Sentinel Newspapers vented his frustration with the Trump press team.
BRIAN KAREM: What you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, "See, once again, the President is right and everybody else out here is fake media."
[Cuts back to live]
GARRETT: The White House tried to use the CNN story to brand all Russia-related news as phony. But, Anthony, here's what's not phony: Two congressional investigations and a special counsel probe into the matter.
