White House trade adviser Peter Navarro got into a heated back and forth with CNN’s Jim Sciutto after the anchor began asking him about a phone call President Trump had with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
CNN reported Friday morning that in June, Trump promised Xi that the United States would remain silent on the pro-democratic protests that have gone on for months in Hong Kong while trade talks were ongoing between the two countries.
Navarro appeared on the network to discuss the new job report from September, but Sciutto pivoted topics to talk about his own reporting on the phone call.
“You assert that as a fact, though. And I read that story carefully, and Jim, from a journalistic point of view,” Navarro began. “Hang on. I wasn’t privy to that phone call. But here’s what I do know. That story had, what, sources, what, familiar with the thing, who are these people? This is the issue.”
“That’s based on anonymous sources who want to hurt this president,” he went on. “That was bad journalism.”
“It’s a frequent point to go to the sources,” Sciutto responded. “By the way, the president’s public comments, after that call, he gave China a pass. He gave China a pass on this, he said it was an internal issue.”
Sciutto continued to defend his reporting and pushed back on the Trump official’s accusations.
Navarro went on, “Here is the thing, the media can’t just write these news stories based on anonymous sources and then expect the White House to confirm or deny. That’s a game we won’t play.”
