White House aide Sebastian Gorka peppers CNN with insults as he insists there's nothing 'untoward' about Trump Jr.'s emails
White House senior aide Sebastian Gorka came out swinging Wednesday night in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. Gorka started out by denying CNN's descriptions of a "crisis" and "a bunker mentality" in the White House following the release of Donald Trump Jr.'s emails confirming he'd met with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the presidential election in the hopes of securing compromising information about Hillary Clinton. "I actually work in the West Wing. I work in the White House. It is absolutely nothing of the kind," Gorka said.
Gorka then switched to offense, laying into CNN for pushing "fake news." "I'm sad to see CNN fall to this. I know you want salacious, sensational coverage for your ratings so your corporate sponsors and owners will have more money but that's not media. That's not reportage. It's just fake news," Gorka said.
Cooper refused to bite. "I'm just going to ignore the insults because I don't think it really gets us anywhere," Cooper said. He then turned back to the news, asking about President Trump's tweet claiming that when the "Fake Media" uses anonymous sources, "often times those sources are made up." Cooper asked whether that still stood, considering Trump's son recently verified anonymously sourced reporting when he published his own emails.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But Gorka wasn't done attacking CNN, bringing up a correction the network once had to make. Cooper agreed CNN's "reporting was wrong" and noted it was corrected, before trying once again to get back to the topic of Trump Jr.'s emails and the president's recent Twitter attack on anonymous sources.
Gorka responded by lauding Trump Jr.'s "transparency" and slamming the "fake news industrial complex" for giving the Russia story "legs."
Watch the exchange below. Becca Stanek
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
-
Trump pivots on Epstein vote amid GOP defectionsSpeed Read The president said House Republicans should vote on a forced release of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats
-
GOP retreats from shutdown deal payout provisionSpeed Read Senators are distancing themselves from a controversial provision in the new government funding package
-
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump on immigrationSpeed Read ‘We feel compelled’ to ‘raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,’ the bishops said
-
House releases Epstein emails referencing TrumpSpeed Read The emails suggest Trump knew more about Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has claimed
-
Newsom slams Trump’s climate denial at COP30speed read Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ declined to send any officials to this week’s summit
-
UK, Colombia halt intel to US over boat attacksSpeed Read Both countries have suspended intelligence sharing with the US over the bombing of civilian boats suspected of drug smuggling

