Trump Destroys Zucker in Statement: “World-Class Sleazebag”

CLAY: Here is what Donald Trump said. Donald Trump put out a press release since we started this show, and he says — you ready for this, Buck? — “Jeff Zucker, a world-class sleazebag who has headed ratings and real-news-challenged CNN for far too long, has been terminated for numerous reasons, but predominately because CNN has lost its way with viewers and everybody else. Now is a chance to put Fake News in the backseat because there may not be anything more important than straightening out the horrendous LameStream Media in our Country, and in the case of CNN, throughout the World. Jeff Zucker is gone — congratulations to all!”

BUCK: That’s actually a really fitting epitaph for an era at CNN right now, because Trump broke CNN. It was never the same after Trump, and that’s why when I say that it changed as a place, I really mean it. It was ideologically left but did have some semblance of journalistic ethics that it would occasionally show. That went absolutely out the window, really openly so, so they could turn into an anti-Trump machine.

And it was very personal. Talking to Clay about this off air. Jeff Zucker and Trump knew each other for a long time, and Zucker decided that, you know, he didn’t like Trump and Trump didn’t like him, and it turned into… He really used CNN almost as a personal feud weapon against Donald Trump — and that’s not a good idea ’cause, you know, the Trumpster knows how to hit back. But I’d also say this.

Yesterday I think I mentioned how — or this week we talked about — people in media — and it might be just interesting for folks out there to know. Like I said, people say Whoopi Goldberg is very nice, you know, a very nice person, you know, irrespective of all the stuff that’s been talked about that’s been going on this week. Whereas Keith Olbermann is just universally known — left, right, center — as just a horrible human being. Jeff Zucker, not a nice guy. (chuckling) Not a nice guy. So a lot of people across the media landscape right now are going, “You know, too bad for you, Zucker. You know, too bad for you.”