Or even Democratic presidential candidates to try and use the media as a foil here," Zeleny told "CBS This Morning" at the time. "It is a very common tactic for Republican presidential candidates. Zeleny later told CBS News, however, that he suspected Santorum's outburst was a "tactic" aimed at building support among conservative Republicans. "Stop lying," Santorum said, alleging that he had been referring to Romney's record on health care.
![have a nice life insult have a nice life insult](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506940192i/36340275._UY1668_SS1668_.jpg)
"You said Mitt Romney is the worst Republican in the country," Zeleny said to Santorum on the rope-line following his initial remarks. Rick Santorum also lost his patience with reporters on the trail during his candidacy, after New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny pressed him for details about comments he made calling then-rival Mitt Romney "the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama." Voters were also offered a glimpse of the tensions on the trail earlier this year, when Mitt Romney's travel press secretary Richard Gorka told the reporters to "kiss my a**" and "shove it." The publication of the exchange - which is arguably unflattering to both parties - offers a rare glimpse at the often-fraught relationships between reporters and communications officials. In a subsequent email he added: "Have a good life Michael." "And by good day, I mean F**k Off," he wrote. Reines then called Hastings an "unmitigated a**hole" and directed him to "have a good day." "Why don't you give answers that aren't bulls*** for a change?" Hastings responded. If there was intel, then we have some kind of cover-up-whether out of incompetence or ass covering before the election or just the trauma of losing four good men, it's hard for me to say at this point," Hastings wrote.įrom there, the conversation devolved to personal insults: Reines wondered "Why do you bother to ask questions you've already decided you know the answers to?" If there was no intel, then clearly the CIA and other intel agents stationed in Benghazi weren't doing their jobs well. "The defense that the administration has offered that there was no intelligence warning of an attack is weak. In the email thread between Hastings and Reines, Hastings called the State Department's statement "offensive" and accused the department, and the administration, of propagating "misinformation." "Perhaps the real question here is why is the State Department now attacking the messenger," CNN said in a statement. How do they justify that? They have yet to even try to defend the indefensible."ĬNN defended its use of the journal, contending the network was "raising questions about why the State Department didn't do more to protect Ambassador Stevens and other U.S. And only did so after being contacted by a reporter asking about the diary and their convoluted sourcing. "Anderson Cooper didn't even bother to offer any other explanation as to why the network broke its promise to the family. Or that when they finally did tell them, they completely ignored the wishes of the family, and ultimately broke their pledge made to them only hours after they witnessed the return to the Unites States of Chris's remains," the State Department said in a statement over the weekend, according to Politico. "What not owning up to is reading and transcribing Chris's diary well before bothering to tell the family or anyone else that they took it from the site of the attack. The State Department called CNN's reporting "indefensible" and said the network had defied Stevens' family's wishes. CNN obtained the diary following the attacks in Benghazi, and according to BuzzFeed, the State Department had not previously known the diary existed. In his response, Philippe accused Hastings of being "needlessly antagonistic" before launching into a lengthy response criticizing CNN for using information from the diary in its reporting.