After CNN New Day anchor Chris Cuomo claimed on Thursday that Republicans were “hiding” in the “safe haven” of Fox News in the wake of the Florida school shooting and “afraid” to appear on his network, on Friday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz called out CNN for refusing to air a 15-minute exclusive interview he gave them that same day.
“So we invited Republican senators, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz...They declined,” Cuomo huffed on his Thursday morning show. “You have to take these issues on. You’ve got to ask the tough questions. You must be held accountable,” he demanded of the GOP lawmakers. He wrapped up his rant by asking: “Where are they? They won’t come on here, they’re on Fox News this morning, the mother ship, so they won't be pressed about gun control. What are they afraid of?”
Well, it turns out that CNN conducted an interview with Cruz that very day about the violence, a fact which the Senator pointed out to Cuomo via Twitter on Friday: “That's funny, I spoke to CNN for 15 mins yesterday about proactive solutions to prevent gun violence (like passing the Grassley-Cruz bill – which Dems filibustered – that would add $300 million for school safety) yet CNN has aired NONE of it. Why not air the (entire) interview?”
Cruz later tweeted a picture of himself being interviewed by a CNN correspondent on Capitol Hill and slammed Cuomo: “Here’s a pic of the @CNN interview – a 15-min exclusive given yesterday – that y’all still haven’t aired... (While falsely claiming I’m “afraid” to talk to CNN.)”
Cuomo eventually responded on the social media platform by lamely arguing that only Cruz appearing on New Day would be acceptable: “Be clear: Cruz and others were invited to come on @NewDay and be tested about how to stop these shootings. They declined. If Cruz or others did an intv with Cnn thereafter fine, but they didn’t when we asked. Period. Offer stands. Anytime. Anywhere.”
Minutes later, the CNN anchor claimed: “...talking to Cnn later on is irrelevant, because there are important questions and testing to be done.”
Does Cuomo think that he’s the only person working at CNN that can be trusted to ask “important questions”? What does that say about his opinion of his colleagues?
Considering Cuomo’s long history of behaving more like a liberal activist than an objective journalist, is it any wonder Cruz would seek to talk to someone else at the network?
