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CNN's Cuomo Refers to White House Aide Raj Shah as 'Raj Whatever His Name Is'

January 15, 2018

CNN host Chris Cuomo referred to White House aide Raj Shah as Raj "whatever his name is" during a discussion Monday of the continuing fallout from President Donald Trump's reported vulgar remarks about foreign countries last week.

Shah, an Indian-American and the White House deputy press secretary, released a statement shortly after the Washington Post reported Trump made remarks about "s—hole" countries in Africa that didn't dispute Trump's comments.

"We went to the White House when it happened, and Raj whatever his name is didn't back off the words," Cuomo said on "New Day" in a clip flagged by The Daily Caller.

Later in the morning, Cuomo simply referred to him as "Raj."

"If the White House wanted to deny the language, they could have done it from jump," Cuomo said. "Raj put out a statement that—when asked, he didn't say it was the wrong language."

It's not the first time someone on CNN has struggled with identifying Shah. In December, CNN posted a graphic of a remark made by Shah but used a picture of Rajiv Shah, an Obama administration official.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted about the mistake, calling it "fake news." Anderson Cooper later apologized for the mix-up.