CNN’s Cuomo and Nauert Have Bitter Debate Over WH Aide’s McCain Quip: ‘This is About Decency’
Things got tense on New Day today when CNN’s Chris Cuomo grilled State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert on whether the Trump Administration has any obligation to do something about the White House aide who dismissed John McCain because he’s “dying anyway.”
Kelly Sadler has been identified as the White House official who made the scornful comments about the Arizona senator because of his opposition to CIA director nominee Gina Haspel. Sadler reportedly got chewed out by Meghan McCain during a phone call, and today, Cuomo asked Nauert if President Trump should say something about how those sneers were “wrong” and “mean.”
“Chris, I’m not exactly sure what you’re referring to,” Nauert responded, which prompted Cuomo to react with a very skeptical “really?”
As Nauert dodged in order to talk about the government’s latest endeavors with Iran and North Korea, Cuomo said it wasn’t about politics with McCain, which caused her to complain “I don’t know why you want to start this by being argumentative.”
“I’m not being argumentative,” Cuomo said. “It’s a pretty easy question. I’m letting you say what you want in response, that’s your choice. But this isn’t politics, this is about decency.”
Nauert insisted “I’m not familiar” with what Cuomo was talking about — leading to a bitter back and forth that ended with Cuomo spelling the story out for her.
“I’ve seen that. I don’t know this individual, now thank you for telling me exactly what you’re referring to,” Nauert said. “I’m not familiar with it and I’ll leave it at that.”
Cuomo eventually moved on to ask Nauert about North Korea and Iran, but there was a palpable tension that kept bubbling up throughout the whole exchange.
Watch above, via CNN.
[Image via screengrab]
— —
