SC congressman bashes CNN for Russia report

A South Carolina congressman took time Thursday to go after a CNN report about the attorney general’s meetings with the Russian ambassador, demanding a retraction.

But the cable channel stood by its report, and even went so far as to say so to U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens, directly on social media.

It started with calls from Duncan for CNN to publicly retract a story that Attorney General Jeff Sessions failed to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador on his security clearance forms when he joined Donald Trump’s administration.

Duncan’s call was based on later claims by the Department of Justice that Sessions had been told not to disclose such meetings on the form.

Duncan went on his Facebook page to say CNN had been “forced to backtrack” on the story, saying it was “easily disproved within hours, and has since been buried to the back of their website.”

But a tweet from CNN’s PR Twitter account shot back at Duncan’s claims. While CNN’s original story was updated, the network cited its own expert saying Sessions still should have disclosed the meetings.

Duncan responded by saying he gave CNN “too much credit.”

“They would rather hide their mistake,” the Laurens Republican said, “than fess up to shoddy reporting.”