Chris Cuomo Calls Out Fox News as ‘State TV’ as John Yoo Furiously Backpedals on His ‘Espionage’ Smear of Lt. Col. Vindman

CNN’s Chris Cuomo pulled no punches in his segment with former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, blasting Fox News as “state TV” and challenging Yoo’s recent appearance on that network in which he baselessly suggested Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was conducting “espionage” for Ukraine.

Yoo and Fox News primetime host Laura Ingraham have been forcefully and thoroughly and roasted over the past two days for their not-so-subtle attempt at character assassination of the combat wounded Army officer Vindman, who works in the Trump White House. During the segment in question, Ingraham repeatedly implied that Vindman’s Ukrainian background — he immigrated from that country to the US as a child — could have had a nefarious influence on his judgment, after which Yoo echoed her toxic insinuations, saying “some people might call that espionage.”

Cuomo, seemingly anxious to call out those outrageous comments, wasted no time in firing back on his show.

“State TV, a.k.a. Fox News, has been crushing LTC Vindman,” he said right out of the gate, before playing the Fox News clip in question. “Here’s one of the ugliest examples.”

Yoo also wasted no time in continuing to backpedal from his incendiary claim, apologizing before Cuomo even had a chance to ask his first question.

“Thanks for having me on and giving me a chance to I hope clarify what I was trying to say,” Yoo said .”I wasn’t questioning Lieutenant Colonel Vindman’s patriotism. I have a lot of respect for people who wear the uniform. It seemed to me the Ukrainians were engaging in espionage and I really regret the choice of words, but I was thinking about Ukrainians engaging in espionage, not Lieutenant Vindman.”

“If you say you’re sorry, that’s good enough for me on this show,” Cuomo said, but he was not about to let Yoo and Fox News off the hook that easily. “How could you have thought [Ingraham] was talking about Ukraine when she was obviously talking about Vindman and these ugly suggestions he was working both sides? You know for a fact that they came to him for help with Giuliani. He was doing his job. How could you let her get away with that?”

“I really do think that the Ukrainians are the ones engaged in espionage,” Yoo offered.

“How is that espionage?” Cuomo cut in.

Yoo replied by taking several more steps back from Ingraham and his previous remarks and saying: “I don’t have any doubt [Vindman] did the right things in reporting his concerns up the chain of command. I just want to make clear I’m not questioning his patriotism in any way.”

“What do you think about Laura Ingraham doing exactly that?” Cuomo pressed, birddogging Yoo. “You’re going to go on a show and listen to somebody try to impugn the character of a man you now call a patriot. What do you think of what she tried to do?”

After a noncommittal non-answer, Cuomo later doubled back on Ingraham’s conduct.

“Do you regret not telling the host of that show, ‘Hey don’t talk about Vindman like that,’ We don’t know that he’s a Never Trumper. Don’t accuse of him of being a spy. This is ugly stuff. This is beneath us as Americans.” Cuomo asked.

“I wish I had said, and I just didn’t have time to, was that I didn’t know the facts, I didn’t know Lt. Col. Vindman, and I wish I had said, ‘Let’s find out more and let’s hear the fact first before rushing to any judgments,” Yoo responded, in a frank admission that he was totally commenting on the fly. “I didn’t mean to rush to any judgments, Chris, and I really appreciate what you’re saying and I do share your views. I think I made a mistake in not being clear in what I thought.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.