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Trump says CNN is ‘fake news’ over refuted reports of town hall script

‘That’s why their ratings are so bad!’

Photo of Kris Seavers

Kris Seavers

Trump tweeted that CNN is 'fake news' following reports that the outlet gave a 'scripted' question to a student for its town hall on gun control.

President Donald Trump on Thursday tweeted that CNN is “fake news,” quoting a Fox News report that a Florida school shooting survivor dropped out of CNN’s town hall debate on gun control over a “scripted question.” CNN has vehemently denied giving the survivor a script.

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Colton Haab, a junior at the Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people last week, told Fox News on Thursday that CNN had provided him with a question to ask at the town hall on Wednesday night.

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“What [CNN] had actually done was wrote out a question for me,” Haab told Fox News.

Haab previously said he had written a speech and multiple questions for the town hall event, “and it ended up all being scripted.”

In a statement Thursday, CNN said “there is absolutely no truth” to Haab’s claim that the network scripted questions for the town hall, which was intended as a debate on gun violence in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

CNN also invited Haab on its network to “discuss his views on school safety.”

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Trump has often decried CNN as a “fake news” source. In January, the president’s suggestion of awarding a “fake news trophy” backfired when Fox News, Trump’s news channel of choice, was voted the most “corrupt” news outlet.

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The Daily Dot