CNN host’s massive Trump fail mocked

CNN host Chris Cuomo was mocked on Thursday after his attempt to disprove US President Donald Trump’s theory about how phones work backfired on live television.

David Holmes, the political counsel at the US Embassy in Ukraine, testified during Thursday’s impeachment hearing that he overheard a would-be damming phone call between Mr Trump and European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland.

Mr Holmes said he “could hear the President’s voice through the earpiece of the phone”, which was not on speakerphone.

Mr Trump, in real-time, tweeted his scepticism.
 

I have been watching people making phone calls my entire life. My hearing is, and has been, great. Never have I been watching a person making a call, which was not on speakerphone, and been able to hear or understand a conversation. I’ve even tried, but to no avail. Try it live!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2019

“I have been watching people making phone calls my entire life,” Mr Trump tweeted.

“My hearing is, and has been, great. Never have I been watching a person making a call, which was not on speakerphone, and been able to hear or understand a conversation. I’ve even tried, but to no avail.”

He added, “Try it live!”

CNN’s Cuomo took the President up on the challenge and called his mother during coverage of the impeachment hearing.

Because we are in the absolute dumbest timeline, Chris Cuomo calls his mom on live TV to disprove Trump's claim and demonstrate to viewers that bystanders can hear a caller on the other line...and we only hear his mother when he puts her on speaker. pic.twitter.com/Bif8QsmPHb

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 21, 2019

“Let’s just play with that for a second. Mom can you hear me?” Cuomo asked, without receiving a response from his mother.

“I’m with Dana Bash … can you just say hello? Mom? She probably can’t hear me,” Cuomo said as he struggled to hear whether or not his mother could hear him.

Cuomo then put the device on speakerphone.

“Mom, can you hear me?” he asked again.

“I hear you, when you talk to me I hear you,” his mother responded.

The Cuomo Prime Time namesake then turned off speakerphone and could no longer hear his mother — just as Mr Trump explained is typically the case.

A frustrated Cuomo then hung up the phone, and critics quickly lampooned the moment.

“CNN’s Cuomo trying to prove you can hear a conversation on another person’s cell phone (while on speaker, mind you) is the most ill-advised thing we’ve witnessed on live TV since Marcia Clark had OJ try the gloves on,” The Hill media reporter Joe Concha wrote.