Donald Trump Jr. called veteran journalist Carl Bernstein, famous for his reporting on the Watergate scandal, a “leftist hack” on Sunday.
The president’s eldest son tweeted the jab at Bernstein and CNN’s chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto for their report in July that said Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen was ready to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that President Trump signed off on Trump Jr. and campaign officials’ meeting with Russians in hopes of obtaining dirt on Hillary Clinton.
That report was cast in doubt last week when Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, said on CNN that “the reporting of this story got mixed up” and definitively said “No, he does not” when asked if his client had knowledge beforehand or immediately after the Trump meeting took place.
“Michaels Cohen’s attorney clarified the record, saying his client does not know if President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting (out of which came nothing!). The answer is that I did NOT know about the meeting. Just another phony story by the Fake News Media!” the president tweeted Saturday.
His son followed with a shot at Bernstein and CNN on Sunday.
“Comical to watch @CNN covering for leftist hack @carlbernstein. He & Obama staffer @jimsciutto obviously got story wrong. CNN “stands by” it anyway, defending literal fake news. 3 ‘reporters’ were fired for false CNN hit on [former White House communications director Anthony] Scaramucci & this is FAR worse!” Trump Jr. tweeted Sunday, referring also to CNN researcher and producer Marshall Cohen comparing the current situation to the exit of three CNN journalists last summer following a retracted report on a Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials.
Comical to watch @CNN covering for leftist hack @carlbernstein. He & Obama staffer @jimsciutto obviously got story wrong. CNN “stands by” it anyway, defending literal fake news. 3 “reporters” were fired for false CNN hit on @Scaramucci & this is FAR worse! https://t.co/KdgpXfGhgT
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 27, 2018
Trump Jr.’s tweet came in response to a Washington Post report in which a CNN spokeswoman said, “We stand by our story, and are confident in our reporting of it.”
That same report acknowledged that Post follow-up to CNN’s story, which said Cohen told associates he witnessed a discussion between Trump Jr. and his father about the forthcoming Trump Tower meeting, had Davis as an unnamed source, who is now coming out to admit he didn’t have that information confirmed.
“I should have been more clear — including with you — that I could not independently confirm what happened,” Davis told the Post in admitting on the record he was the source. He added: “I regret my error.”
Bernstein, best known for his investigative reporting for the Washington Post that shed light on the Watergate scandal leading to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, said his CNN report in July was the “best evidence” yet of there being a “demonstrable” cover-up, which he said dated back to reports last summer that Trump dictated his son’s initial misleading statement about the meeting when it was first brought to the public’s attention.
In that same CNN interview, Bernstein equated CNN’s reporting on President Trump’s knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting between members of his inner circle and a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign to his Washington Post reporting during the Watergate era.
President Trump regularly denounces CNN as being “fake news.”
