CNN is doing its best to claim the title of most deranged anti-Trump news outlet in the face of intense New York Times competition, considering its latest disgrace in omitting key evidence that cast doubt on its story smearing Justice Kavanaugh.  But at least when caught and publicly mocked, the Times offered a correction, albeit a relatively inconspicuous one.

CNN, on the other hand, is not only sticking with its bogus story, but playing victim.  You may remember that last Monday, CNN's Jim Sciutto, a former Obama administration official, relied on one anonymous source to make this allegation:

A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy.

This was transparently false, because the decision to remove the spy was made during the Obama administration.  Even the New York Times published this fact.

C.I.A. officials worried about safety made the arduous decision in late 2016 to offer to extract the source from Russia. 

CNN's hit piece amounted to a Second Russia Hoax, as I wrote last Wednesday.

Yesterday, CNN brazenly defended the story and played victim with false claims.  Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller News Foundation was among the rare CNN viewers and writes:

YouTube screen grab.

CNN's Brian Stelter and Jim Sciutto accused Trump supporters and conservative media Sunday of trying to "tear down" a CNN report that the CIA extracted a Kremlin spy because of concerns about President Donald Trump's handling of classified information.

The CNN correspondents ignored it was reporting from The New York Times and Washington Post that undercut CNN's claim[.]

"Many pro-Trump allies and commentators tried to tear down that reporting and say it might not be true. Do you stand by that reporting now a week later?" Stelter asked Sciutto on "Reliable Sources."

"One hundred percent," Sciutto replied. "We would not have gone there if we didn't trust the source's involvement, information and level of involvement in that those discussions."

Here is the video:

President Trump's frequent harangues of CNN as "fake news" have been called a threat to freedom of the press.  CNN is doing its best to justify them.

Why corporate parent AT&T continues to tolerate the reckless operation of its news outlet, and its failing ratings, is a mystery to me.