During an interview on CNN, former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joked that the network was ‘fake news’ and immediately had his feed cut out.
Sanders had been discussing Donald Trump and his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, regarding comments that the President was not up to speed on the situation.
“Well, I don’t know, maybe he (Trump) was watching CNN fake news,” Sanders joked.
The catchphrase seemed to trigger technical difficulties, which the network says were unintentional.
Via Fox News Insider:
During an interview Friday night with CNN, former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joked about “CNN fake news” at which point the feed cut out.
Speaking to Erin Burnett, Sanders was responding to a clip of President Donald Trump saying he had not seen reports that his National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had discussed sanctions with Russia before being sworn in.
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe he (Trump) was watching CNN fake news. What do you think?…It was a joke,” Sanders said.
Burnett said she understood his comments were a joke.
The President tweeted:
While on FAKE NEWS @CNN, Bernie Sanders was cut off for using the term fake news to describe the network. They said technical difficulties!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2017
Of course, CNN didn’t quite catch on to that joke at their expense, and issued a statement fact-checking the President.
@realDonaldTrump False. Transcript from @ErinBurnett intvu w @SenSanders. He was not cut off. Those are the facts. https://t.co/NzJNgdYSIX pic.twitter.com/AOFKLHUlGk
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 12, 2017
Following the commercial break, Sanders returned to CNN after the technical difficulties were remedied.
That said, the network will have difficulty convincing viewers that somebody running the audio feed to Sanders didn’t get triggered by the term ‘fake news’ and cut him off out of an abundance of caution.
This is, after all, the network that equated the term ‘fake news’ to calling them the n-word.
Comments: Do you think CNN cut off Sanders audio after hearing the term ‘fake news’ or do you think it was a coincidental case of technical difficulties. Share your thoughts below.
