A former Trump campaign aide spent Monday making inflammatory claims in a series of media appearances, prompting the CNN host to imply that he was drunk on-air.
After interviewing Sam Nunberg, who was making a show of being subpoenaed by special counsel Robert Mueller, in the CNN studio, host Erin Burnett asked him the question point-blank.
“Talking to you, I have smelled alcohol on your breath,” she said, sitting just a few feet from Mr. Nunberg.
Mr. Nunberg denied it, prompting several skeptical-sounding follow-up queries from the host.
“It is the talk out there … no, you haven’t had a drink today,” she said as he repeatedly denied it.
Here’s CNN’s Erin Burnett telling former Trump aide Sam Nunberg that she can smell alcohol on his breath. He says he hasn’t been drinking. pic.twitter.com/tryye9AiqA
— Jim Dalrymple II (@Dalrymple) March 6, 2018
SEE ALSO: Sam Nunberg, former Trump campaign aide, subpoenaed in Robert Mueller probe, won’t testify
When asked if he was on anything at all, Mr. Nunberg replied “besides my meds?”
He said he was on anti-depressants and asked Ms. Burnett “is that OK?”
Anti-depressants don’t usually leave an alcohol-like odor on their user’s breath.
“They can say whatever they want, I don’t really care,” Mr. Nunberg said, implying that the White House was trying to paint him as unreliable.
Mr. Nunberg had been fired from the Trump campaign when some past racist Facebook posts came to light in 2015.
He also had said in other media appearances Monday that he thinks Carter Page may have colluded with Russia to affect the election, and that he and Steve Bannon “both feel like, I’m telling you, that Trump may have very well done something during the election.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday afternoon that Mr. Nunberg was ill-informed.
“I definitely think he doesn’t know for sure because he’s incorrect,” Mrs. Sanders said. “As we’ve said many times before, there was no collusion with the Trump campaign. He hasn’t worked at the White House, so I can’t speak to him or the lack of knowledge that he clearly has.”
That prompted Mr. Nunberg in a later interview to say Mrs. Sanders was “defacing me” and then calling her “a joke,” “unattractive” and other personal insults.
He added in the NY1 radio interview that such insults are “not relevant.”
“The person she works for has a 30% approval rating. If she wants to start attacking me, she can do that, that’s fine. But we know it’s a joke,” he said.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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