Former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, who also served as White House chief of Staff under President George H.W. Bush, was invited on CNN, where he and host Alisyn Camerota were discussing the recent passing of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who lost his battle with brain cancer on Saturday. Scores of public officials issued statements honoring the late Arizona Republican, who ran twice for president and earned the highest level of respect among his colleagues. McCain’s life was one of service.
Yet, this nice discussion took a dark turn when Camerota brought up the Trump White House not issuing a statement on the passing on McCain. Well, it was more of Trump reportedly rejecting the idea. Sununu took a swipe at The Washington Post and CNN’s reporting, which did not go over well with Camerota, who scolded the former governor for denigrating the precious news corps of CNN, a network who couldn’t report Trump feeding koi fish accurately. So, yeah—excuse us for being a bit skeptical about a network that is an outlet for the anti-Trump opposition media. Sununu tried to pivot back to honoring his late friend, but then added that he feels the need for the elite news media to try and turn everything into a Trump bashing event, the pervasive accentuation of the negative that has created the toxic political environment we see today. Frankly, I don’t mind it; we know who are enemies are. But Camerota pushed back saying that it was not the press who bred this division. That may be the case, but they’ve sure done a good job making sure that wound is open, infected, and festering—all because Hillary Clinton lost an election (via Mediaite):
Camerota asked Sununu about the Washington Post’s report that the president personally rejected plans for a White House statement to honor McCain.
“That was printed in the Washington Post,” Sununu said. “And I have to be honest with you, I don’t give much credence to what I read –”
Camerota interjected — noting that CNN confirmed the information.
“We also have that reporting,” she said.
Sununu scoffed at this.
“Yeah, well, same thing applies, Alisyn.”
[...]
“Governor,” Camerota said, drawing a breath and taking a three second pause which felt as though it lasted an eternity, “you come on CNN, and we appreciate you coming on CNN and we appreciate your take on it. But I don’t appreciate you denigrating our reporting. We have excellent reporters here.”
[...]
“You asked me to come on to talk about John McCain,” he said. “I’m here to talk about John McCain as I remember him. I’m not here to talk about the press’s handling of a difference between the White House and the press corps at this time.”
This isn’t the first time Camerota and Sununu have gone at it. The latter has taken the network to the woodshed for their Russian collusion fixation.
“If [special counsel Robert] Muller comes out and says that my version is correct and yours isn’t, how much crow are you going to eat?” said Sununu in June of 2017. The Sununu-CNN battles are always popcorn-worthy—and this one was no exception.