'Where's Steve?': Trump Frets as CNN Benches His Biggest Defender

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‘Where’s Steve?’: Trump Frets as CNN Benches His Biggest Defender
Amid national uproar over mass shootings, possible economic gloom, and gun control, the president has found time to be distressed over a pro-Trump pundit’s lack of CNN airtime.
Asawin Suebsaeng
White House Reporter
Maxwell Tani
Media reporter
Published 08.21.19 5:32AM ET


Over the past month, President Donald Trump has asked several administration officials the same question. “Where’s Steve?” the president has repeatedly inquired, according to two officials who’ve heard him do so in the White House.

The “Steve” in question isn’t Steve Mnuchin, Miller, Bannon, or Moore. It’s Steve Cortes, a member of the Trump 2020 advisory board and a paid on-air contributor at CNN, a perennial media foe of the president’s.

Late last week, The Hollywood Reporter published a story on how Cortes had been “benched” by network brass, and hadn’t appeared on CNN in the U.S. in more than a month. “They just won't book him,” a former CNN contributor told THR. “They’ll just pay him. They won’t fire him, because that’s just blatant. But they won’t book him, and they’ll tell all the producers not to book him.”

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On top of grousing to his aides, Trump got on the phone with Cortes in the past month to ask him what was going on, and to complain about CNN’s “bias” and how unfairly the cable news network has treated its pro-Trump, conservative commentator, two sources familiar with the call tell The Daily Beast.

“It wasn’t enough to have a stacked, four-versus-one panel,” said former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), a current Trump surrogate and former CNN contributor. “CNN has decided to eliminate as many Trump supporters as possible, including me, Jeff Lord, Jason Miller, Bryan Lanza, and Steve Moore. The Republicans who survive are the ones who take constant jabs at Trump. They’re Never Trumpers or RINOs.”

Kingston, who did not have his CNN contract renewed for this year, added that while he didn’t receive a phone call from the president following the end of his paid contributorship, he used to get calls from Trump “from time to time” during his time at the network, when the president would praise Kingston’s performances in specific CNN segments and discuss “whatever issues” were on his mind. Trump would also ask about the other panelists he enjoyed watching—and would be sure to point out the ones he “did not like,” Kingston said.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-frets-over-benching-of-his-biggest-defender-on-cnn-wheres-steve-cortes?ref=home