In an unusual turn of events, Chris Cuomo -- a liberal co-anchor of the Cable News Network's New Day morning program -- actually grilled Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, on Thursday regarding an unflattering email she sent regarding Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The missive -- which was released as part of the WikiLeaks' “document dumps” -- read: Clinton's “inability to just do a national interview and communicate genuine feelings of remorse and regret is now I fear becoming a character problem."
“Now,” Cuomo stated, “when Secretary Clinton was asked about this, she went to the point that the campaign prefers, which is WikiLeaks is Russia infiltrating the election.”
“That may be true,” he continued, “perhaps according to the intel agencies of the U.S. government. ... Yes, if they're stolen emails, which they are, that's a problem. But let's deal with the substance of ... one of the ones that you wrote” before displaying the post text.
Cuomo also noted:
This is interesting to hear that inside, you guys were having the same discussion that people were having outside.
Where did you guys come to a conclusion about why Clinton had such a hard time just owning that she did something wrong with the email server?
Tanden responded by totally avoiding the question.
“
You know,” she said, “I know that Russia and other forces would love us to have a debate ... about the internal structure of Hillary's campaign. What's true, what's not true? And I'm just not going to play that. I'm sorry.”
“The reality here is, as [Republican Senator from Florida] Marco Rubio said, 'we have a Russian government, … a foreign government trying to essentially impact this election.' And I'm sorry, Chris, but using the American media to do that.”
Cuomo tried to interrupt Tanden's lengthy response, but she nevertheless continued: “Any email I sent was personal from my personal account to someone else's personal account. I'm not on the campaign. I was a formal outside adviser with my own thoughts.”
Avoiding the fact that she has been a longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, the liberal activist stated: “I'm just telling you right now, Chris, the reality of this is that I think … people should not be using this as weaponizing the emails or personal emails of anyone and sending them … .”
Cuomo then interjected: “Neera, if this email were from [Donald Trump Campaign Manager] Kellyanne Conway to [Deputy Campaign Manager] Dave Bossie, you would be giving me all your deepest thoughts about it right now.”
“You don't like it because it's your email,” he asserted. “You're ducking it, you're not having high ground.”
“Chris, that's absolutely false,” Tanden replied. “I would not be doing that. You can see in other areas where email has been used on any other issue of taking the same position.”
The New Day co-host then turned to the campaign's response on the release of Donald Trump's taxes. When those “came out, the Clinton campaign couldn't stop talking about them, right? Those were leaked.”
“Actually, that is really important,” Tanden stated. “Chris. I agree with you” she said before contradicting him by asserting: “These emails were not leaked. They were stolen.”
“What is the difference on how they come out?” Cuomo asked. “That's a separate issue. The emails say what they say.”
“You just said 'leaked,'” the guest quickly responded. “You just said 'leaked.'”
“Yes, I know,” the co-host noted. “I'll say it again, 'leaked.'”
Tanden replied: “And they weren't leaked.”
“That's a separate issue,” Cuomo responded.
“It is not a separate issue,” the Clinton campaign representative growled. “How this got, how this happened was a foreign government, and you don't listen to me. Listen to Marco Rubio.”
The Thursday morning clash is particularly noteworthy in light of the New York Times' decision to publish Trump's tax records that show he declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years.
According to an article by Collum Borchers of the Washington Post, Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet declared he would risk going to jail for the chance to publish Trump's returns.
Two weeks later, Times reporter Susanne Craig said she found tax documents in her mailbox from an anonymous source, a situation that skirts federal law on punishment for the unauthorized publication of personal taxes.
After authenticating the information but never identifying its source, the New York newspaper basically said: “We don't care where the documents came from.”
It's an interesting day when a liberal CNN host presses a Clinton campaign spokeswoman, who then quotes a GOP senator as proof of her point. Interesting and rare, too.
