CNN Admits to ‘Technical Issues’ During Interview with GOP Congressman After Anchor Accused Him of Faking Audio Problems

CNN on Friday admitted that a technical issue was the cause of an awkward on-air exchange between anchor John Berman and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY).

The day before, Lawler appeared on CNN to discuss Congress’s ongoing struggle to pass a new spending bill.

At the time of writing, Congress was just a few days away from triggering a government shutdown. In an effort to encourage holdouts to vote for the bill, the Office of Management and Budget released a memo threatening to permanently cut federal jobs if a new budget bill isn’t passed. In previous government shutdowns, those cuts were temporary.

During Lawler’s conversation with Berman, the anchor made numerous unsuccessful attempts to interject as Lawler was talking. This went on for an extensive period of time.

At first, Berman suggested that there was some kind of technical error. By the end, however, he suspected that Lawler was deliberately ignoring him to continue speaking.

“I think you can hear me,” Berman said.

The next morning, CNN issued a statement confirming that “technical issues” had indeed occurred and apologized to Lawler:

CNN experienced technical issues during Rep. Mike Lawler’s interview on Thursday that caused the Congressman to briefly lose audio connection. We apologize for the error.

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