President Donald Trump launched an attack on CNN after one of the news outlet’s political analysts questioned him about his health amid reports he suffered heart issues.
Political analyst and former President Clinton’s White House deputy press secretary Joe Lockhart took to Twitter on Monday to ask if Trump is keeping details of his heart health from the American people.
“Did [Donald Trump] have a stroke which he is hiding from the American public?”
Did @realDonaldTrump have a stroke which he is hiding from the American public?
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) August 31, 2020
The Trump campaign fired back and called on the network to fire Lockhart.
“CNN should fire Joe Lockhart, a lifetime failure who thought it was a great idea for fellow loser Michael Dukakis to put on that stupid helmet, for knowingly pushing a conspiracy theory about President Trump’s health. Great political expert that he is, Lockhart single-handedly sank the John Kerry campaign, and now he’s doing the same to Joe Biden from a distance,” the campaign said.
According to the campaign, if the same question were posed about former President Barack Obama by a CNN reporter, they would lose their job.
“If another CNN employee said similar things about Barack Obama, they’d be fired immediately, so the same standard should be applied here. That is, of course, unless CNN is complicit in the smear campaign in order to level the playing field against Joe Biden, somebody who truly has lost a step,” the campaign added.
INBOX: Trump campaign statement on Joe Lockhart pic.twitter.com/hsIZV7MR5s
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) September 1, 2020
The president took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to reject reports about him suffering a series of mini-strokes last year, as IJR previously reported.
White House physician Sean Conley released a statement of his own hours after Trump’s post to confirm Trump has not suffered from heart issues, as IJR previously reported.
Conley said Trump “remains healthy,” and he expects the president “to remain fit to execute the duties of the Presidency.”