CNN's Don Lemon cut off the last segment of his own program early Friday night after Paris Dennard, former staffer in President George W. Bush's administration referred to his discussion as "fake news."
"The president is not breaking any laws, and he's not doing anything," Dennard had commented during a discussion of the taxpayer costs for President Donald Trump's frequent trips to Florida and other locations of Washington D.C., reports Talking Points Memo.
"Fake news is when you put out a story to intentionally deceive someone and you know that it is wrong," Lemon said, while interrupting Dennard. "This story that we’re doing right now is not to intentionally deceive anyone. We are simply talking about the cost to keep a President safe."
A CNN spokesperson said Saturday that Lemon was running up against time constraints and the segment was running too long. That is why he cut it off, CNN said.
Before he cut him off, Lemon also told Dennard, now a political commentator, to stop with his "stupid talking point" about the discussion being "fake news."
"If you don’t want to participate in the news stories on this network, then don’t come on and participate," Lemon told him. "But don’t call them fake because you don’t agree with them. Go on."
"Don, this is a fake news story, in my opinion," Dennard shot back, "because the underlying assumption is that— "
Lemon interrupted again, thanking Dennard and others while ending his program early.
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Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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