Cable news network CNN stood up to President Donald Trump Monday, accusing the Commander-in-Chief of being an online bully after he called anchor Don Lemon the “dumbest man on television.”
“In a world where bullies torment kids on social media to devastating effect on a regular basis with insults and name-calling, it is sad to see our president engaging in the very same behavior himself,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill.
“Leaders should lead by example.”
Trump’s offensive tweet came after The New York Times published an article over the weekend that detailed the president’s habits, including his apparent obsession with watching hours of cable news daily. The profile also claimed that the president would “hate-watch” Lemon’s evening show.
“Another false story, this time in the Failing @nytimes, that I watch 4-8 hours of television a day – Wrong!” he tweeted. “Also, I seldom, if ever, watch CNN or MSNBC, both of which I consider Fake News. I never watch Don Lemon, who I once called the ‘dumbest man on television!’ Bad Reporting.”
Trump’s tweet also followed CNN’s correction of a story about Donald Trump Jr.
The network reported last week that Trump Jr. had received access to hacked Democratic emails from WikiLeaks more than a week before they were leaked to the public — direct evidence of the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russians.
The network later corrected its reporting, instead claiming that someone unaffiliated with WikiLeaks had emailed Trump Jr. to notify him that WikiLeaks had already published the emails.