CNN fires back at Trump, stands by controversial story: ‘CNN does not lie’

A full-blown war of words between the first family and CNN broke out late Wednesday on Twitter, with the cable network mounting an unprecedented attack on President Trump in a jarring official statement defending a widely questioned story.
The statement from CNN came after the president mocked Watergate legend Carl Bernstein, who co-wrote the disputed report that Trump’s former lawyer was prepared to give damning information about the president to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
CNN continues to stand by the story despite growing skepticism.
“Make no mistake, Mr. President, CNN does not lie. We report the news. And we report when people in power tell lies. CNN stands by our reporting and our reporters. There may be many fools in this story but @carlbernstein is not one of them,” CNN’s public relations department sent.
The scathing message was a response to Trump’s criticism of CNN for standing by a report on the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting, despite ex-Clinton aide Lanny Davis admitting he was an anonymous source and recanting key details he provided CNN for the story. Davis, the high-powered attorney of Trump’s longtime “fixer”-turned-foe Michael Cohen, admitted Monday he was an anonymous source after The Washington Post outed him as a source for its own version of the story.
Bernstein weighed in late Wednesday: “I have spent my life as a journalist bringing the truth to light, through administrations of both parties. No taunt will diminish my commitment to that mission, which is the essential role of a free press. @CNN stands by its story, and I stand by my reporting.”
Jim Sciutto, Marshall Cohen and Bernstein wrote CNN’s original story that particularly was damaging to the president, and resulted in countless cable news segments that provided ammunition for anti-Trump pundits.
Davis told BuzzFeed News that he regretted being the anonymous source.
The CNN story, which cited multiple “sources,” claimed Cohen said Trump knew in advance about the Trump Tower sit-down. However, Trump repeatedly has denied any advance knowledge of the meeting, and CNN has stood by its reporting amid widespread criticism.
“CNN is being torn apart from within based on their being caught in a major lie and refusing to admit the mistake. Sloppy @carlbernstein, a man who lives in the past and thinks like a degenerate fool, making up story after story, is being laughed at all over the country! Fake News,” Trump tweeted earlier in the day, apparently drawing the ire of CNN execs.
While CNN responded to Trump via social media, the network has remained stone-silent when asked by reporters throughout the industry about Davis recanting his story.
CNN published a new report on Tuesday that acknowledged the changing stories of Davis, but critics were quick to point out that it left several key questions unanswered. Some feel the piece revealed Cohen as a source, while others noticed that the follow-up failed to explain why the original report claimed Davis declined comment when he was actually used as a source.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son, immediately took to Twitter to defend his father in a series of messages.
“CNN you just lied again by saying you don’t lie. You said Lanny Davis declined to comment when he was in fact a source,” Trump Jr. wrote. “Are you kidding me with this BS. Do you have any journalistic credibility at all? I mean seriously??? You’re a joke!!!”
He continued: “This is @CNN. Quadrupling down when even the likes of buzzfeed and the Amazon WaPo have acknowledged the story was #fakenews. Ballsy... Stupid, but ballsy. You do you CNN.”

Trump says 'no reason' for costly US-South Korea war games, relationship with Kim Jong Un is 'very good'

President Trump on Wednesday tweeted that there was “no reason” for joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea, dubbing them costly while describing his relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as “very good” and “warm.”
However, he signaled that he could restart them if he wanted to, promising that they would “be far bigger than ever before.”
The president tweeted a White House statement, in which he said he believed the rogue regime was experiencing “tremendous pressure from China” amid “trade disputes” with the U.S. Simultaneously, North Korea was acquiring “considerable aid” from China, which “is not helpful,” Trump continued.
“Nonetheless, the President believes that his relationship with Kim Jong Un is a very good and warm one, and there is no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint U.S.-South Korea war games,” Trump tweeted. “Besides, the President can instantly start the joint exercises again with South Korea, and Japan, if he so chooses. If he does, they will be far bigger than ever before.”
The statement went on to insist that any issues between the U.S. and China would be taken care of by Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who have a “very strong” relationship.
Earlier Wednesday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued a statement that three military exercises were suspended “in order to provide space for our diplomats to negotiate the verifiable, irreversible and complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”
"Our military posture has not changed since the conclusion of the Singapore summit and no decisions have been made about suspending any future exercises," he continued, adding that the alliance between the U.S. and South Korea was "ironclad."
Following his June meeting with Kim Trump promised to end the war games with South Korea.
Earlier this week, Trump said he’d asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cancel a planned trip to North Korea, citing insufficient “progress” towards denuclearization, while also faulting China.
“I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Trump tweeted. “Additionally, because of our much stronger trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were (despite the UN Sanctions which are in place).”

Democratic Primary Cartoons

Donna Shalala, ex-Clinton Cabinet member, wins Dem primary to replace Ros-Lehtinen

Donna Shalala, right, will face Maria Elvira Salazar for the right to represent Florida's 27th Congressional District in November.  (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Donna Shalala, a former secretary of health and human services under President Bill Clinton, was projected to win the Democratic primary for a Florida U.S. House seat seen as key to both parties' chances of taking control of Congress.
The 77-year-old Shalala, a former president of the University of Miami, defeated four other candidates to win the nomination for Florida's 27th District. She received 32 percent of the vote, while her closest challenger, state Rep. David Richardson, received 28 percent of the vote.
On the Republican side, longtime Spanish-language TV journalist Maria Elvira Salazar defeated eight other GOP candidates -- including former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro and former Doral city council member Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, who briefly seized the spotlight with her claim that she was abducted by aliens as a child.
Rodriguez Aguilera's profile was raised even further last week when the Miami Herald newspaper endorsed her in the primary, praising her "boots-on-the-ground ideas and experience" while admitting she was "an unusual candidate."
Shalala and Salazar are competing to succeed retiring Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who has represented the district since 2013.
The seat is widely viewed as one of the best chances for a Democratic pickup this November. Voters there backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election.
Shalala, making her first run for elected office, has said she is confident Democrats will flip the seat no matter which Republican is nominated, citing voters opposed to President Trump.
"There's no question about it. In all their experience, Trump is their worst nightmare," she said.

Menendez, in fight for political life, loses backing of fellow NJ Democrat

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who survived a corruption trial last year, was snubbed this week by a fellow Democrat in his state, raising questions about whether the two-term senator will be able to keep his seat despite heavy campaign spending.
James Fozman, a city councilman in the Jersey Shore township of Brick, has instead endorsed Menendez's Republican opponent, former U.S. Marine Bob Hugin.
“I’m endorsing [Hugin] to restore the honesty and integrity to the office,” Fozman told Brick Shorebeat. “We strongly believe in protecting our environment on issues like solar and wind, and opposing offshore drilling.”
Fozman told the outlet that he considered leaving the party over its continued support for Menendez, who wasn’t able to get the support of nearly 4 in 10 of the state's Democrats.
Those state Democrats went on to support an unknown challenger in the primary who spent no money against Menendez.
But while Fozman's opposition to Menendez may not decide the election, it raises larger questions about whether the senator, who eluded a corruption conviction thanks to a hung jury in November, is capable of retaining his seat.
Hugin has cut Menendez's lead to a mere 6 points in a Quinnipiac University poll released last week. Back in March, when the race began, Hugin trailed by 17 points and it appeared as if Menendez was on his way to an easy victory.
Hugin attacked Menendez over the weekend, saying that if he hadn't decided to run, Menendez would likely have been re-elected without facing any real opposition.
“My wife and I were just offended that Bob Menendez was going to be reelected without any real opposition. He’s had 35 years of being involved in corruption,” Hugin said during an interview with New York's WNYM-AM radio, according to the Hill.
Democrats took notice of Menendez’s struggling campaign, pouring in $117,000 for ads in recent weeks.
The spending spree by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) was mocked by Chris Hansen, the National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director.
“The DSCC is starting to spend in conjunction with @BobMenendezNJ in a race he is very much in danger of losing. This will no doubt trigger a dozen more Beto think pieces,” Hansen tweeted.
Hansen was referring to Democrats’ hopes to turn Texas blue and replace Sen. Ted Cruz with Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the rising star of the moderate Democratic Party who’s been receiving especially favorable media coverage, all while their candidates are struggling in already solid-blue states.
“With the DSCC and outside groups having to spend big in expensive states like New Jersey and Florida, it’s no surprise red state Dems are acting like it’s the Hunger Games for Chuck’s money,” NRSC communications director Katie Martin told the Washington Free Beacon.
“Every dime and second spent trying to defend a corrupt politician like Bob Menendez in New Jersey means resources aren’t going to states President Trump carried by double digits,” she added.

Why CNN is standing by a Michael Cohen story that his lawyer calls false

Lanny Davis, who has been engaged in high-stakes crisis management and political lawyering for decades, says he made a mistake.
CNN, which relied on Davis at least in part for a story he now says is false, won't say it made a mistake.
And the contretemps contains a revealing look at the sausage-making of investigative reporting and the sometimes murky dance between reporters and their unnamed sources.
Davis, who I've found to be a straight shooter over a quarter century dating back to the Clinton scandals, told me in a telephone interview yesterday that he had made an error and regrets it.
"I should not be talking to reporters on background about something I'm not certain about," Davis told me, describing his interactions with CNN reporters. "The combination of big stakes and a big mistake is a bad moment for me. If I had a redo in life, I wouldn't have said anything about the subject."
After initially saying nothing, here is the sum total of CNN's comment: "We stand by our story, and are confident in our reporting of it." A CNN report yesterday said that Davis kept changing his story in his dealings with the network.

Here's the backstory: CNN dropped a bombshell last month by reporting that Davis' client, Michael Cohen, had information that Donald Trump knew in advance of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son, his son-in-law, campaign chairman and a Russian lawyer. "Cohen is willing to make that assertion to special counsel Robert Mueller," according to "the sources," CNN said.
The president has repeatedly denied any advance knowledge of the meeting.
The story, whose bylines included Carl Bernstein and Jim Sciutto, was picked up by the broadcast networks and many other major media organizations.
But now Davis has outed himself as an anonymous source for CNN, and says Cohen has no such information about advance knowledge by the president.
In my interview, Davis said he told CNN reporters that he couldn't confirm the Trump Tower allegation but encouraged them to check it out. He now believes they may have interpreted this as giving them a green light.
"When I work for a client, whether it's the White House or anybody else, and there's something that might be true but I'm not sure, I have to not expect reporters to get it right," Davis told me. He said he should have been more explicit in telling the CNN journalists not to pursue an unsubstantiated story.
Davis added that he did not intentionally mislead CNN's Anderson Cooper in saying he wasn't a source for the network. He meant that he wasn't a confirming source on the Trump Tower allegation over and says he should have been more clear.
Implicit in CNN standing by the story is that the network has other sources for the Trump Tower allegation. But how could others have information about what Cohen believes when the president's former lawyer is essentially saying, through Davis, that he has no such information?
Cohen, of course, pleaded guilty last week to bank fraud, tax evasion and campaign finance violations related to hush money payments to two women making accusations against Trump.
The president, of course, has boasted about Davis' admission on Twitter.
The Washington Post handled its dealings with Davis very differently. The Post had also dealt with him as an unnamed source.
As the paper recounts, the day after the CNN story, "The Post reported that Cohen had told associates that he witnessed an exchange in which Trump Jr. told his father about an upcoming gathering in which he expected to get information about Clinton. The Post did not report that Trump Jr. told his father that the information was coming from Russians.
"The information in the Post story, which was attributed to one person familiar with discussions among Cohen's friends, came from Davis, who is now acknowledging his role on the record."
And that’s the thing. CNN doesn’t have to protect Davis, who has come clean about his role in the matter.
When the White House makes a mistake or clings to an unsubstantiated charge, news organizations hammer top officials about it. Shouldn't a network have the same obligation to explain itself when an explosive story is denied by one of its own sources?
Davis says he has learned a valuable lesson, and is "pulling back" on other claims he has made. The Washington lawyer told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow there were indications that Trump knew in advance of the hacking of Democratic emails.
He said that was his belief but that he had no hard evidence to back it up.
Lanny Davis has owned up to his mistake. We'll have to see what lessons are drawn by other players in this melodrama.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author "Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press and the War Over the Truth." Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Soros-backed Gillum to square off against Trump-backed DeSantis in key Florida test

Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who secured Florida’s GOP gubernatorial nomination on Tuesday, wasted little time before depicting his new Democratic rival as a candidate who wants to make “Florida Venezuela.”
DeSantis, who was backed by President Trump, appeared on the “Ingraham Angle” following his win, and denounced his competitor, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, as “the most liberal candidate that the Democratic Party has ever nominated in the state of Florida by a country mile in a governor’s race.”
Gillum’s unexpected win was seen as a huge win for the newly emerging progressive wing of the democratic party, and Tuesday's outcomes immediately transformed the nation’s largest swing state into one of the key gubernatorial campaigns in the country.

I’m trying to make Florida even better, he wants to make Florida Venezuela.
- U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.

The mayor received an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and was congratulated by newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Miami Herald reported that he also benefited from “a financial boost from billionaires Tom Steyer and George Soros.”
DeSantis will test Trump’s grip on a crucial state he won in 2016.

Andrew Gillum addresses his supporters after winning the Democrat primary for governor on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, in Tallahassee, Fla.  (AP Photo/Steve Cannon)

The two will compete to replace outgoing Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
“(Gillum) wants to abolish ICE; he wants a billion-dollar tax increase; he wants a single payer health care system in Florida, which would bankrupt the state. I’m trying to make Florida even better. He wants to make Florida Venezuela,” DeSantis said, adding that Gillum’s tenure as mayor has been “absolutely disastrous.”
The Herald reported that DeSantis is a member of the Freedom Caucus who wants a border wall.
During the campaign, Gillum often said he was the only candidate that wasn’t a millionaire or billionaire, and spent the least of his Democratic rivals.
After winning the Democratic nomination, Gillum thanked supporters who embraced “our plan for a state that makes room for all of us, not just the well-heeled and the well-connected, but all of us.”
DeSantis, a former Navy lawyer and Harvard-educated Iraq War veteran, entered the race in January and has since made frequent appearances on Fox News. DeSantis, won Tuesday’s GOP gubernatorial primary, beating state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.
Blaise Ingoglia, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, told The Herald that he welcomes the challenge, saying, “progressive-slash-socialist candidates just don’t perform well in general elections.”

NAFTA Cartoons