CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders exchanged barbs Wednesday during a wide-ranging, one-on-one interview.
At one point, their discussion about President Trump’s claims the FBI spied on his 2016 campaign devolved into an argument about how the network covered Trump’s signing of the VA Mission Act, which took place earlier that day.
“Chris, there have been a lot of reports that raised a lot of cause for concern. The president’s asking that those be looked at. Look, there’s been nothing, literally nothing that has come out of the year-and-a-half-long witch hunt that you guys have been on,” Sanders started.
Cuomo then demanded to know why the White House insisted on calling special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election a “witch hunt.”
“I’ll ask you a third time. I don’t know why you keep calling it that,” Cuomo said. “Bob Mueller’s one of the most respected people in your party. He’s a decorated veteran.”
“I’m glad you guys want to mention the veterans now, but you didn’t want to cover it when we were actually providing greater choice,” Sanders replied.
Trump signed a new veterans bill into law Wednesday. The VA Mission Act will allow people who have served in the military to seek care at private sector medical facilities.
CNN carried a portion of the bill signing ceremony, but didn’t break from its regularly scheduled programming to cover the event.
“Have I ever taken a cheap shot at you? Why would you say that we wouldn’t support the veterans?” Cuomo retorted, before Sanders said he was taking her out of context.
[Sarah Sanders on CNN: ‘Unfortunately you guys quit reporting the news’]
“You were the guys who decided not to invite one of the biggest veterans groups who was in favor of the choice bill to the ceremony today, the IAVA,” he continued.
“We wouldn’t have known that they weren’t there based on the coverage by CNN today,” Sanders shot back.
