CNN’s John King Walks Back Rumor About Biden Campaign Filing Challenge to Iowa Results: ‘Stupid’ to Bring Up on Air

CNN’s John King walked back comments he made today about the Joe Biden campaign potentially challenging the release of Iowa caucus results.

Earlier today, as King and the CNN panel were discussing the Iowa fiasco, he said the following:

“Some of the other campaigns, I’m looking at messages — if I’m looking down, I apologize — in the middle of a breaking news situation — I’m looking at message from aides [in] two other campaigns who said they are hearing that the Biden campaign is going to file an injunction. We don’t know that that’s true, there’s a lot when these things happen, buzz goes around among the candidates.”

The Biden camp planning to file an injunction would indeed be big news, but after King mentioned it on air, they said that’s not happening:

Biden aides say reports that the campaign is considering a legal injunction to stop the partial release of Iowa results this afternoon are “100% false.”

— Matt Viser (@mviser) February 4, 2020

Biden aide on report that he would file an injunction to stop the release of the Iowa results: “That is 100% false, and checking with people before reporting rumors about them is an underrated practice."

— Sam Stein (@samstein) February 4, 2020

King took to Twitter later this afternoon to report the same, adding, “In the breaking news rush my discussing, even skeptically, incoming from rival campaigns was, in a word, stupid.”

You can watch King’s initial comments above, via CNN.

UPDATE — 7:36 pm ET: King addressed the error on air tonight, saying it was “a mistake on my part to even mention it.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!