CNN has always been at daggers' points with Donald Trump, however, Chris Cuomo took the antagonism to a new level when he implied that the mainstream media is the true embodiment of America and hating it means hating the country.
In CNN World, criticizing mainstream media apparently equals betraying the very principles the nation stands on. At least, that was the message delivered by CNN's 'Cuomo Prime Time' host Chris Cuomo when he attacked Trump for his fresh Twitter rant against "fake news" in the wake of the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The post-meeting press conference of the two leaders saw mainstream media explode with condemnation and allegations of treason against Trump after he appeared to cast doubt on Russia's meddling in the US elections.
Trump's shaky attempts at appeasing the home crowd, like clarifying that he meant to say he did not see "any reason why it wouldn't (instead of would) be Russia," made it worse, if anything: scathing cover stories continued to portray Trump as Putin's minion with Time magazine even morphing them in one person.
Making a new move in his bitter war with "fake news" and "failing" publications after facing the media backlash, Trump on Thursday declared the Helsinki summit a "great success" and those who fail to acknowledge this, "the Fake News Media," the "enemy of the people."
Although the US president did not call out any particular broadcasters, Cuomo has taken the offence, calling the tweet "ugly and unoriginal."
"But most importantly, it is an admission that you hate your country," the CNN host said in his closing remark. He argued that the term "enemy of the people" invokes parallels with French monarchists who used it to justify the killing of revolutionaries, as well as with Khrushchev, Mao and Stalin's respective crackdowns on dissent.
Continuing his tirade in the defense of the mainstream media, Cuomo argued that there was "a reason" for the delay before Trump ordered flags lowered after a deadly shooting at the Capital Gazette in June.
Cuomo then accused Trump of only caring about his own interests, warning that his disrespect of the establishment media will eventually backfire.
"So right now, you want people to hate us. But as the old expression goes, you point a finger at someone else, and there are three pointing back at you and a thumb that's kind of nowhere defending where you put it, but that's not the point," he said.
The CNN host then took his point one step further and equated the anti-Trump media with America itself, as if to imply the people unilaterally share its liberal and left-leaning narrative.
"The real worry should be for you. Do you really think people will keep a president who hates what their country is all about?" he said.
Trump's war on the press has seen many skirmishes, and Trump's tactics are simple. He has repeatedly unloaded on mainstream outlets in tweets, referring to the New York Times as "failing," or slamming BuzzFeed as "a failing pile of garbage."
CNN has been the most frequent target of his attacks, with Trump famously denying its correspondent an opportunity to ask him a question during a press conference, while calling the broadcaster "fake news" and a "terrible" organization.
It's also not the first time Trump brands establishment media "the enemy of the people"
"The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" he tweeted at the beginning of his tenure in February last year.