President of the United States Donald Trump launched a new tirade against major news networks. This time, the President did not single out CNN, but name-dropped one of the network's anchors.
The issue started with a report by the New York Times suggesting that Trump watches television 4 to 8 hours every day. The report, titled "Inside Trump's Hour-by-Hour Battle for Self-Preservation," was written by Maggie Haberman, Glenn Thrush, and Peter Barker.
Trump retaliated with a tweet. "Another false story, this time in the Failing @nytimes, that I watch 4-8 hours of television a day -- Wrong," Trump wrote. However, that is not the entirety of his Twitter statement. The President continued with, "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 has an ongoing feud with CNN and MSNBC.
This instance is not the first time Trump criticized Lemon. Back on Aug. 10, Trump tweeted, "@dbongino (Dan Bongino) You were fantastic in defending both the Second Amendment and me last night on @CNN. Don Lemon is lightweight - dumb as a rock."
CNN fires back with a statement of their own saying that Trump bullied Lemon. "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. Leaders should lead by example."
Lemon himself released no comment prior to Trump's statement against him.
Other than Trump receiving backlash, CNN is also under fire for their statement. Former political analyst for CNN, Jeff Greenfield does not agree with his former network at all. Greenfield tweeted, "Unless Don Lemon is a LOT younger than he appears to be, this is a tone-deaf overreach. From what I've seen, Lemon -- unlike bullied kids whose school officials ignore the issue -- is more than capable of standing up for himself. This almost infantilizes him."
