Fox Accuses CNN of Using Ilhan Omar Controversy to Attack Trump

CNN takes every opportunity to smear US President Donald Trump, spinning even the most unlikely topics — such as Rep. Ilhan Omar's anti-Semitic outburst — against the Republican president, Fox News's Brian Flood wrote Saturday.

The Muslim, Somali-American Democrat has come under fire after she suggested that AIPAC — the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee — uses its funding to sway US congressmen to support Israel. Her remarks have been condemned both by Trump and Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

CNN, however, wants to shift the focus to Trump. In particular, Flood cites "CNN Tonight" host Don Lemon, who mentioned Trump's call for Omar to resign before going on a lengthy recap of the president's earlier controversial remarks, suggesting that Omar's gaffe was somehow justified by Trump's similar stumbles, and that those stumbles made it "stunning" that the president would even weigh in on the matter.

​Comments similar to Lemon's were made by CNN's Erin Burnett and Chris Cuomo.

​"He's calling for Omar to get out, and that is interesting," Cuomo said Tuesday before playing a clip of Trump's speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2015, when he told them he didn't want their money and therefore didn't expect their support.

The idea also extends to how CNN manages its social media, Flood writes. The network posted a tweet about Omar with a caption that read, "Democratic congresswoman apologizes after some of her tweets were criticized as anti-Semitic," sparking an emotional reaction from NewsBusters Associate Editor Scott Whitlock.

"Called anti-Semitic? As a reminder, the Minnesota Democrat used an old trope, saying that Jews were buying lawmakers and ‘all about the Benjamins, baby.' This is the same woman who once called Israel ‘evil,'" Whitlock wrote in his editorial.

By contrast, a CNN tweet about Donald Trump Jr. read, "President Trump's oldest son made light of the US government's history of genocide against Native Americans as part of a slam against Sen. Elizabeth Warren and her claims of American Indian heritage."

"Note the editorializing here," tweeted "The Rubin Report" host Dave Rubin, posting screenshots of both CNN tweets. "CNN is propaganda."

​Flood's point is supported by Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor.

"Well, we had a few days where the media had to allow Democrats to look bad. Now, CNN hits the reset button and tries to make every bad thing Democrats do turn into a hit job on… Trump," Gainor told Fox News. "Every scandal is an anti-Trump scandal sooner or later."

Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson said in an interview for Fox News that CNN would do well to simply acknowledge it has an anti-Trump agenda.

"The conduct of CNN news reporters, particularly Jim Acosta, makes obvious CNN's anti-Trump and left-leaning bias. Transparency would be the best remedy," Jacobson said. "CNN should just admit its news division, not just its opinion commentators, hate Trump and want him gone."