Trump Blasts CNN Over Spat With San Diego News Station –– CNN Responds

President Donald Trump took to Twitter tonight to blast CNN and show the video of a local news station calling out the cable news network.

To briefly recap: San Diego station KUSI said that CNN had reached out to them asking for one of their reporters to speak with them about border issues. The network offered a reporter who has reported from the border, but CNN ultimately ended up declining. As of this posting, KUSI’s online report still says, “We believe CNN declined a report from KUSI because we informed them that most Border Patrol Agents we have spoken to told us the barrier does in fact work.”

CNN PR responded with this statement:

We called several local stations to book someone for a show. We didn’t end up booking any of them. That happens many times every single day. We did, however, book a reporter from KUSI for a story on immigration and the border wall in November. This is a non story. #factsfirst?

— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) January 11, 2019

KUSI’s statements got a lot of attention today. Not only did the President himself blast CNN on Twitter tonight, but the official White House Twitter account shared the clip too:

.@CNN called a San Diego news station (@KUSINews) for negative reports on the Wall. When the station said that Walls work, CNN no longer had interest. #FakeNews pic.twitter.com/IDyXqmDsPq

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2019

MUST WATCH: A San Diego news station reports that CNN called them for a local view of the border wall debate. "After we informed them about our past reports, they declined to hear from us." pic.twitter.com/mGYWO6ovgL

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 11, 2019

CNN responded with basically the same statement:

False! CNN called several local stations to book someone for a show. We didn’t end up using any of them. That happens many times every day. We did, however, book a reporter from KUSI for a story on immigration and the border wall in November. This is a non story. #factsfirst?

— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) January 11, 2019

Tonight the AP is reporting that the network’s news director is now backing off the accusation CNN’s decision was political:

[Steve] Cohen said he never actually spoke to anyone about CNN about why Plante wasn’t used.

“It’s certainly plausible that they didn’t want it for the viewpoint, or they just didn’t want it,” he said. “Both are plausible conclusions. I made one rather than the other.”

UPDATE –– 1/12, 3:43 pm ET: Despite Cohen’s comments KUSI is standing by its original report.

[image via screengrab]

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