CNN's Chris Cuomo calls Susan Rice story a 'fake scandal

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo appeared more like a bomb-throwing partisan pundit than an objective reporter when reporting the revelation that former national security adviser Susan Rice was involved with the unmasking of Trump associates from U.S. intelligence during the election. He made the comments Tuesday morning while introducing Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.).

"All right, President [Donald] Trump, right-wing media types," he said, "peddling a fake scandal."

"What is it?" he asked rhetorically, "Well, this suggestion that former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice improperly unmasked the identity of Trump associates is part of what the president calls a crooked scheme. An associate of Rice says it's just plain false."

"Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Jim Himes. He serves on the House Intel Committee, something that has also been accused of being a 'crooked scheme' because of what happened with Devin Nunes," he continued.

Some viewers were angered by what they saw as unfair positioning of the story by Cuomo to be completely false.

"[Chris Cuomo] is a Democrat operative posing as a CNN anchor,"tweeted one person in response to his statement. "He reads propaganda to America under the guise of a journalist."

Another suggested they were attempting to play down the Rice story because the Russian collusion accusations against Trump were failing to turn up anything substantive.

Rice appeared on MSNBC Tuesday in a long interview with Andrea Mitchell to dismiss the charges, saying that any "unmasking" was done in the normal procedure of her executing her job as national security adviser, and not out of any political motivation. She also denied the reporting that she had a spreadsheet compiled with information about Trump from the spy agencies.