President Trump blasted CNN last week when the network announced it had hired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe to be a contributor.
The FBI fired McCabe on March 16, 2018, after the Department of Justice Department inspector general’s report found CNN’s new star had “repeatedly misstated” his part in leaking information regarding an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation to The Wall Street Journal.
In perhaps his shortest tweet ever President Trump tweeted, “Disgraceful!”
With his usual bulldog fashion, Trump mocked CNN by pointing out its highest-rated show “Cuomo Prime Time” ranked at a miserable 27th.
Fox News dominated cable news with both “Hannity” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” having three million viewers each compared to Cuomo’s one million.
Commenting on those numbers Trump added in a tweet, “Such a sad and pathetic fall for @CNN and Jeff Z[ucker]!”
The Hill reporter Joe Concha concurred with the President telling Fox News that McCabe’s addition to the CNN roster is “truly a disservice to its viewers and only furthers plunges the network’s credibility into a black hole.”
McCabe is suing the FBI, claiming his dismissal was because “agencies bowed to political pressure from President Trump.”
Concha told Fox News, “McCabe was fired by the FBI for lying at least four times, including three times under oath. CNN has rewarded that by giving McCabe a platform as his lawsuit moves forward.
Concha went onto say, “His credibility is non-existent. He told Anderson Cooper earlier this year he believed it was possible President Donald Trump is a Russian asset, an outrageous claim for someone of his former stature to make on national television just to promote a book.”
According to Concha, McCabe should be glad the ‘Michael Flynn jail sentence [standard]’ about lying to the FBI has not been applied to him. If it was, Concha said, McCabe wouldn’t be going to CNN, he “would be going to jail.”
Conservative strategist Chris Barron said, “Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.”
There was some push back regarding McCabe’s hiring with CNN’s own ranks. A CNN insider told Fox News, “There was a time when journalists were inherently skeptical of intelligence officials. Now, former spy chiefs and FBI officials find paid gigs with flattering, non-challenging appearances on our network. Such arrangements would’ve been unimaginable to journalists in decades past.”
Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC) tweeted, “Andrew McCabe: fired for lying to the FBI, caught by the Inspector General for unauthorized media leaks, and—worst of all—one of the ring-leaders in spreading the debunked and disastrous ‘Russian collusion’ conspiracy theory. His reward? A paid CNN contract. Comical.”
Since his firing, McCabe has made the rounds at ever liberal media circuit seeking a platform to attack President Trump and protest his innocence.
But conservatives aren’t buying it.
Tim Young tweeted, “CNN hired Andrew McCabe, who was fired from the FBI for LYING UNDER OATH… of course… that makes perfect sense.”
CNN signed several former administration intelligence officials in recent years including Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken, and former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.).
It’s no surprise that Blinken and Clapper have found at home at CNN. Regardless of their party affiliation, both are a prime example of the Washington swamp, Trump promised to drain.
The Washington Examiner asked in an editorial in June, “What is wrong with CNN these days? Has it lost all standards distinguishing news from opinion?”
The Examiner rightly noted that CNN has moved far beyond the news. Whatever Chris Cuomo’s opinion of Trump may be, his job is to tell us what was said and what happened.
Examiner reporter Quin Hillyer laments CNN’s fall from “fact-based news.” Hillyer offers a blaring example, “I am watching CNN right now as it runs a chyron at the bottom of the screen labeled ‘Politics of hate.’ Its subhead is Trump using racism as a political strategy in new rhetoric.”
There were no question marks but rather an opinion scrolling across the bottom of the screen as though it was incontrovertible.
So now CNN has James Clapper, a man proven willing to lie under oath, and Andrew McCabe, who leaked to the press and then lied about it.
McCabe has a great job for his character – tell a lie and then report that lie as fact. He and CNN deserve each other.
