CNN host Don Lemon on Tuesday attempted to bat down the notion that CNN has bias against President Donald Trump, adding they do not favor Democrats.
CNN's White House correspondent Jim Acosta sat down with Lemon to discuss his new book, The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America, and the news network's coverage of the Trump administration.
"For all those people who say, 'Oh the press, CNN, hates Trump and CNN loves the Democrats,' I watched Manu Raju with Nancy Pelosi, who clearly did not want to answer Manu's questions today even in her body language and you know what? He persisted and he asked her the tough questions anyway," Lemon said.
"So of anyone, a Democrat or a Republican regardless of who it is: If you hold a position of power, we the journalists at CNN are going to question you about it regardless whether you like it or not," Lemon continued
Acosta agreed with Lemon's comments and claimed that just because CNN is "pro-truth" doesn't mean they are "anti-Trump." He went on to talk about the theme of his book and how the media is "not the enemy of the people."
"We are defenders of the people, and we want to defend the people because we are devoted to the people," Acosta said. "We are not here to spin things or color things a certain way. We're here to get the way people reliable, accurate information on a daily basis. That's why we all come into work everyday. We get a high out of it, and I just want to make sure we keep this going as a country."
Lemon's claim about CNN's bias echoes his previous comments last week at the Financial Times Future of News event in New York City when he said the network isn't "liberal."
The Washington Free Beacon has previously highlighted examples of Lemon's bias against Trump and Republicans:
In December, Lemon said he did not think he would be able to shake President Donald Trump's hand at George H.W. Bush's funeral.
"I want to say that I don't think I would shake hands with them. Nope, couldn't do it. I'm not that big a person. I would hope that I would be, but I don't— I can't fake the funk as they say," Lemon said, prompting fellow CNN host Chris Cuomo to call him "petty and small."
In October, Lemon called "white men" the country's biggest terror threat after saying "we have to stop demonizing people."
"We have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them," Lemon said. "There is no travel ban on them. There is no white guy ban, so what do we do about that?"