CNN’s Berman Mocks Trump Shooing Mulvaney Out for Coughing: ‘God Forbid You Cough in the Oval’
CNN host John Berman mocked President Donald Trump’s scolding of White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney for coughing in the Oval Office during an interview with ABC News.
“Two things from ABC News interview: One the president hates polls that don’t make him look good. Two, he hates people coughing in a room during an interview,” said Berman, referencing Trump insisting ABC News reshoot his answer to a question because Mulvaney was “coughing in the middle of my answer. I don’t like that.”
After CNN’s John Avlon argued that Trump was nearing autocratic behavior by trying to brush off leaked 2020 poll numbers against Joe Biden as fake news, Berman went back to the coughing scandal: “There’s also apparently this Vitamin C shortage. I don’t want to gloss over this.”
CNN proceeded to air the clip of Trump raving about Mulvaney’s wheezing. “If you’re gonna cough, please leave the room,” said Trump. “You just can’t cough, you just can’t cough.”
Pres. Trump says he “might” turn over his “financial statement” to Congress.
“I hope they get it, because it’s a fantastic financial statement,” he tells @GStephanopoulos in the Oval Office. https://t.co/8q0FwFD9qt pic.twitter.com/fw1tIc0vxO
— ABC News (@ABC) June 17, 2019
“Did you see that head shake? This is disgust,” said Berman while reacting to the clip. “He was seething at that… Violating the Hatch Act doesn’t get you fired. Lying to the press doesn’t get you fired or sanctioned in the White House. You can spread bad information or denigrate John McCain and it doesn’t get you in any trouble. But God forbid you cough in the Oval Office, then you’re in big freaking trouble then.”
CNN’s David Gregory went on to joke that “Berman doesn’t like when people are coughing on the air either,” while Avlon quipped that “you should see [Berman] during the commercial breaks, it’s brutal.”
At the end of the segment, Gregory let out a couple of fake coughs, to which Berman jokingly responded, “Never again. Never again.”
“Not on his show, David Gregory,” his co-host joked.
Watch above, via CNN.
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