An ex-official in former President Barack Obama’s White House stopped by Fox News to defend CNN cutting away from a recent speech by former President Donald Trump.

Appearing on MediaBuzz Sunday, Philippe Reines — who served in the State Department during Obama’s presidency — told host Howard Kurtz that CNN was justified in cutting away from a Trump speech at the southern border on Thursday.

“Let’s make this clear,” Reines said. “The reason that the networks have to do this and they should do more of it, is because Trump is making it necessary. He is abusing live TV to tell lies.”

Reines went on to reject the idea that CNN was out to stifle Trump — arguing if that was their intent, they wouldn’t have televised the speech at all.

“What Trump did for the first term is that he ran roughshod over the networks,” Reines said. “They never used the word lie. They were too afraid to do it. And one of the lessons from that first term was: Call it out. And he makes it impossible to not do that. If CNN didn’t want to give [the speech] an audience, they wouldn’t have cut to it.”

Watch above, via Fox News.

The post Fmr. Obama Official On Fox News Defends CNN Cutting Off Trump Speech: ‘He is Abusing Live TV to Tell Lies’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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