CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said Special Counsel Robert Mueller "didn't do the media any favors tonight" and handed President Donald Trump a gift when his office refuted a BuzzFeed News report implicating Trump in a felony.
BuzzFeed reported Thursday that Trump had directed longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, citing two anonymous sources in law enforcement, leading Democrats to say it would be grounds for impeachment if true. However, a spokesman for Mueller's office said in a statement the report was "not accurate."
Discussing the developments with former Obama solicitor general Neal Katyal, Cuomo sounded annoyed.
"Mueller didn’t do the media any favors tonight, and he did do the president one, because as you saw with Rudy Giuliani and as I’m sure you’ll see with the president himself, this allows them to say, ‘You can’t believe it. You can’t believe what you read, you can’t believe what you hear, you can only believe us,'" he said. "'Even the special counsel says that the media doesn’t get it right.'"
Katyal noted Trump had called Mueller biased in the past—"not tonight," Cuomo laughed—suggesting it was noteworthy that he would point to his office as credible in pushing back on a potentially devastating report.
BuzzFeed is standing by the report, and editor-in-chief Ben Smith called on Mueller's office to more specifically lay out what it deemed inaccurate about the story.
Trump tweeted tauntingly on Friday over the new developments over the report.
"Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited "Dossier," paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based! A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!" he wrote.
He added later, "Fake news is truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!"
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1086458937002680320
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1086464467481833480