Chris Cuomo laughs at Trump campaign for cease-and-desist letter over CNN poll

On Cuomo Prime Time Thursday night, Chris Cuomo laughed at President Trump and his campaign for sending CNN a cease-and-desist letter, and demanding an apology, over a CNN poll showing Joe Biden leading the president by 14 points. But CNN isn’t the only organization showing Biden with a hefty lead over Trump. A recent ABC/Washington Post poll showed Biden with a 10 point lead over the president among registered voters. Even Fox News did a poll in which Trump was losing.

“Can you believe that we have to have these conversations?” Cuomo asked as he began to laugh. “Can you believe this? I mean, literally, it would not make it through a screenplay treatment. A week ago, he called on state TV over at Fox, they’re his puppets over there at night, to put up a CNN poll. Why am I laughing? Because I don’t want to cry on television. That’s why. I don’t want to cry. It is so sick and sad and obvious.”

To counter the other polls, Trump hired his own pollster, McLaughlin & Associates. But, reading from CNN’s letter to the Trump campaign denying their request, Cuomo pointed out that that particular pollster doesn’t exactly have a record of accuracy.

“CNN is well aware of the reputation of John McLaughlin and McLaughlin & Associates,” Cuomo said. “In 2014, his firm famously reported that Eric Cantor was leading his primary challenger Dave Brat by 34 points. He lost by 11. That’s a 45 point swing. The firm currently has a C/D rating from FiveThirtyEight.”

The letter from CNN to the Trump campaign also states that legal threats from political leaders in the past “have typically come from countries like Venezuela or other regimes where there is little to no respect for a free and independent media.” And it’s because America has a free press that CNN will not oblige the Trump campaign.

“Our network’s message is this: No,” Cuomo said. “This is America. You don’t control what a free press says. That’s the free part.”

Cuomo Prime Time airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on CNN.

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