CNN’s Anonymous Source Falsely Claimed Trump Would Not Press Putin on Election Interference Charges

CNN’s anonymous source who claimed President Trump would not press Russian President Vladimir Putin on the subject of election interference during their meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, turned out to be wrong.

https://twitter.com/CSims45/status/883476820900937728

Cliff Sims, director of the White House’s message strategy, tweeted several screen shots of CNN broadcasts highlighting “anonymous sources from the Trump administration” in their chyrons and then a screen shot of a broadcast stating that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson confirmed that Trump pushed Putin to talk about alleged election meddling.

Sims posted the screen shots with the caption “A #FakeNews play, in three acts — surprise ending!”

https://twitter.com/CSims45/status/883476820900937728

The White House messaging director credited Sen. Marco Rubio’s Press Secretary Matt Wolking for originally tweeting out the screen shots.

Tillerson, who was present at the meeting, refuted the source’s claims during the two-hour meeting Friday, telling reporters that the president brought up the issue “regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election” and “pressed” Putin on the issue multiple times after the Russian president denied any Russian involvement.

“The two leaders agreed that this is a substantial hindrance on the ability of us to move Russian-U.S. relationships forward and agreed to exchange further work regarding commitments of noninterference in the affairs of the United States and our democratic process as well as those of other countries,” Tillerson said.

“So more work to be done in that regard,” he added.

CNN’s use of erroneous anonymous sources is the latest blow to the network after three journalists resigned in June following the publication of a hit piece alleging that there was an investigation into a “Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials” and cited only a single anonymous source in the report.

A Breitbart News investigation caused CNN to retract the article and accept resignations from three senior network officials.