CNN Chief Jeff Zucker: ‘Political Motivation’ to Stop AT&T-Time Warner Merger ‘Came From the President’

CNN head Jeff Zucker said in an interview at SXSW he thinks Justice Department attempts to stop the merger between AT&T and Time Warner were politically motivated.

The $85 billion merger between AT&T and Time Warner, CNN’s parent company, was challenged in court by the Justice Department last year but ultimately a federal judge shot down those attempts and the deal was finalized.

This week, Jane Mayer‘s New Yorker investigation into Fox News reported that President Donald Trump asked his former chief economics adviser Gary Cohn to direct the Justice Department to block the deal in order to punish CNN.

Zucker addressed the New Yorker‘s reporting on the DOJ’s move in an interview at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.

“It came from the president,” Zucker said, according to Deadline. “There was absolutely no basis to be doing what they were doing and clearly there was a political agenda at work.”

“Do I think that there was political motivation to stop the merger between AT&T and Time Warner? I do,” Zucker added, according to Daily Beast reporter Matt Wilstein. The CNN chief said he believes the attempt came “all the way from the top.”

Following the New Yorker report, House Democrats requested information from the Trump administration and Justice Department to determine whether the president inappropriately interfered in the review of the deal.

Zucker also took a shot at Fox News in his interview, according to Deadline: “I’ve said before that Fox is state-run TV, the question should be is the White House state-run government by Fox TV?”