CNN boss Jeff Zucker says Trump legal team are 'crazy' and brands Rudy Giuliani a 'useful idiot' in shock leaked audio
CNN boss Jeff Zucker was caught in leaked audio saying the Trump legal team is “crazy” – and branded Rudy Giuliani a “useful idiot.”
Secret recordings released by Project Veritas on Thursday appear to include Zucker, president of the cable channel, blasting the president’s personal lawyer.
Project Veritas, run by James O’Keefe, is a conservative website that uses hidden cameras and undercover reporters to ensnare journalists or politicos in embarrassing conversations.
O’Keefe claims he infiltrated internal editorial meetings at CNN and recorded what was being said throughout several weeks.
A voice said to be Zucker’s can be heard saying: “There is a term for what Rudy Giuliani is suspected of being, which is ‘useful idiot.’”
That recording was reportedly made a couple of days after Giuliani leaked an apparent hard drive belonging to Hunter Biden to the New York Post.
His laptop had been the subject of a media storm after the New York Post published on October 14 about a “smoking gun” email Hunter Biden received from Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to Ukrainian gas company Burisma's board.
Critics of Joe Biden have often tried to attack and question the former VP’s relationship with Ukraine.
Hunter Biden joined the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2014, around the time Joe Biden was helping conduct the Obama administration's foreign policy with Ukraine.
President Donald Trump and his supporters have alleged that Biden pushed for the firing of Ukraine's top prosecutor to protect his son and Burisma from any investigation.
Biden did push for the prosecutor's firing – but that's because he was reflecting the official position of not only the Obama administration, but many Western countries and because the prosecutor was seen as “soft on corruption.”
Zucker reportedly went on to say that Giuliani’s attempts to discredit the election was a “really important story.”
“It gets tied to the Hunter Biden email disinformation campaign. That’s the way we do this, because it’s all tied and part-and-parcel of one. I know Washington is working on putting that all together.”
Project Veritas said that in a more recent call, Zucker talked to staffers about Trump and his “crazy legal team.”
A staff member apparently questioned what happens when the “real craziness is the client,” referring to Trump, and “not the lawyers.”
A voice said to be Zucker’s agreed and replied: “I think you raise a good point about not just pawning it off on the crazy legal team, but the client is the one who is directing the crazy legal team.”
In another secret tape, Zucker apparently said: “The president of the United States has just retweeted a post accusing Joe Biden of being a pedophile to his 86million followers which is just beyond.”
“You know it also is just unacceptable that the president of the United States is trafficking in this and doing it.”
On Tuesday, Project Veritas released more tapes said to include Zucker speaking with other CNN executives.
A person identified as political director David Chalian could be heard telling Zucker in the recording: "Obviously, we’re not going with the New York Post story right now on Hunter Biden."
"And, which seems to be giving its marching orders to Fox News and the right-wing echo chamber about what to talk about today.
“We’ll just continue to report out this is the very stuff that the president was impeached over – that Senate committees looked at and found nothing wrong in Joe Biden’s interactions with Ukrainians.”
"And now having an email that perhaps there was a meeting with someone from Burisma, it seems – Rudy Giuliani's sort of 'dream-o-vision' of how to throw stuff at the wall in these closing days of the campaign."
Zucker was apparently heard saying in an October 23 call: "I do think, on the Breitbart, New York Post, Fox News rabbit hole of Hunter Biden, which I don’t think anybody outside of that world understood last night.”
Meanwhile, Trump has slammed CNN over the leaked audiotapes of what appears to be Zucker criticizing the “erratic” president.
Zucker previously had a close working relationship with Trump as CEO of NBC Universal during the height of The Apprentice, a reality show which saw him hire and fire contestants.
But their relationship has since soured and O'Keefe alleged that Zucker went on a tirade against Trump during an October 9 conference.
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