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CNN Producer Deletes Tweet After Sarah Sanders' Scorching Fact-Check

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UPDATE, June 24, 2020: This story contains tweets from the Twitter account of the White House press secretary. At the time of publication, Sarah Sanders was the press secretary and her name was on the Twitter account. Though the tweets in this story now look to be from the current press secretary, they are Sanders’ tweets from June 2018.

When a CNN producer tried to mock the work undertaken by President Donald Trump at the G-7 summit, press secretary Sarah Sanders was quick to put fake news in its place.

On Saturday, June 9, Dan Scavino, an assistant to the president, tweeted out a photo of what he called “negotiations” at the summit, The Daily Caller reported. The G-7, or Group of Seven, represents seven of the top global economies — the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.

This year’s session was one in which leaders butted heads over trade, with Trump warning other nations not to take advantage of America on trade.

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CNN producer Gene Hughes publicly threw shade on the image.

“Pretty clever visual messaging here from the White House — taking some kind of group signing event and framing it instead to show President Trump seemingly holding court, with the rest of the G7 leaders clustered in around him,” Hughes tweeted.

Sanders did not let that pass.

Was Sarah Sanders right to pounce on this piece of 'fake news?'
“Congratulations! Once again you are wrong,” she tweeted.

“There is no “some kind of group signing” taking place. It was all negotiations. We were there. You were not. @Scavino45 tweet is 100% factual. Will you retract your “clever” and completely inaccurate tweet?” she added.

In time, Hughes had to admit defeat and deleted his comment.

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“Earlier today, I tweeted a photo of leaders at the G-7 and mistakenly referred to it as a signing event,” Hughes tweeted. “The White House says the images were taken during negotiations between the leaders. I was incorrect, have removed the previous tweet, and apologize.”

European media shared a different angle of the image, which showed Trump, arms folded, eying German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, as the Independent Journal Review reported.

That angle sums up the contentious nature of the gathering, which was revealed in the post-summit comments of the various nations. Trump has accused America’s trading partners of unfair practices, and slapped tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum in retaliation. Canada has vowed to strike back with its own economic measures.

Trump posted a tweet of his own, saying the United States would not sign the post-summit communiqué, a comment that brought a round of antagonism from France and Germany, CNN reported.

“It’s actually not a real surprise. We have seen this with the climate agreement or the Iran deal. In a matter of seconds, you can destroy trust with 280 Twitter characters. To build that up again will take much longer,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Sunday.

“We have had nothing like this before, simply on the sheer breadth and depth of the disagreements,” said Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former British foreign secretary, according to the Financial Times.

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Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack can be reached at jackwritings1@gmail.com.
Location
New York City
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Foreign Policy, Military & Defense Issues




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