Tapper accuses Trump of 'lying' to Americans about recent spat with CNN

CNN host Jake Tapper accused President Donald Trump of "lying" to Americans in a recent Truth Social post about an alleged "false statement" CNN published on Tuesday.

CNN reported that Iranian officials had declared a "great victory" over the U.S. after agreeing to a ceasefire deal. Trump wrote on Truth Social that "authorities" are investigating CNN for publishing the statement, and that it may have been a criminal act.

"The alleged Statement put out by CNN World News is a FRAUD, as CNN well knows," Trump wrote. "The false Statement was linked to a Fake News site (from Nigeria) and, of course, immediately picked up by CNN, and blared out as a 'legitimate' headline."

Tapper offered a fiery rebuttal to the president's remarks during the opening of "The Lead" on Wednesday.

"The issue boils down to this. The statement from Iran's Supreme National Security Council, which claimed victory for Iran, did not fit the messaging that the Trump administration wanted to project, and instead of calling out the Iranian regime for its conflicting statements or explaining how Iran does this all the time, President Trump attacked CNN by falsely claiming we made it up by lying to you," Tapper said.

"We didn't make it up, nor did we present any of Iran's narratives as fact," he added. "We simply presented what the statement said in the context of the rest of the war, and that is our job as journalists to report on what is happening in a war. Our job is not to try to please the president or only report the statements he likes. We're going to tell you what's going on, and we're going to keep doing that, no matter how many lies this administration or the Iranians tell."