‘You’re the Flip Side of Donald Trump’: Michael Wolff Tells CNN’s Stelter He’s ‘Full of Sanctimony’

Towards the end of a contentious Reliable Sources segment Sunday, Michael Wolff criticized CNN’s Brian Stelter directly and told him, “You’re full of sanctimony.”

Stelter confronted Wolff over his new book’s claims about Fox News earlier in the interview, and wrapped things up by recalling the last time Wolff was on the program.

Back in 2017, Wolff told Stelter, “I mean this with truly no disrespect, but I think you can border on being sort of quite a ridiculous figure. It’s not a good look to repeatedly and self-righteously defend your own self-interest. The media should not be the story. Every week in this religious sense you make it the story. We are not the story.”

One day later, then-President Donald Trump called Wolff, and that led Stelter to ask the author if that’s how he got White House access — “by coming on CNN and making fun of us.”

Wolff said his agreement predated that segment, but confirmed Trump called him the next day and thanked him.

“I don’t want you to think that what I said at that point was in any way inauthentic,” he continued. “I think the media has done a terrible job on this. I think you yourself — you’re a nice guy, you know, you’re full of sanctimony. You become one of the parts of the problem of the media.”

“You come on here and you have a monopoly on truth, you know exactly how things are supposed to be done. You are why — one of the reasons — people can’t stand the media,” he added.

Stelter laughed and asked what he should do differently.

“Don’t talk so much, listen more,” Wolff responded.

He told Stelter he’s “incredibly repetitive” and even said, “You’re the flip side of Donald Trump. ‘Fake news,’ and you say ‘virtuous news.'”

“No, we just figure out what is real,” Stelter said.

“Figuring out what is real is not so easy. And most people don’t want to turn to Brian Stelter to tell us what’s real. I’m sorry,” Wolff shot back.

Stelter asked with a laugh why, then, he’s been on CNN a few times this past week.

“You know, I’m a book salesman,” Wolff said.

You can watch above, via CNN.