With just a week remaining until Donald Trump is sworn into office as the next commander in chief, a new controversy continues to hang over his head. After CNN broke their exclusive story regarding Russia planning to blackmail the president-elect after obtaining "compromising" information, Trump lashed out at the network, labeling them "fake news."

CNN fires back

The aforementioned CNN report impacted Donald Trump and his transition team to the point that the president-elect devoted much of his recent press conference to smearing the network, while refusing to allow reporter Jim Acosta to even ask a question.

On Wednesday night, Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway got into a heated exchange with CNN host Anderson Cooper over the network's report, and Trump's comments that followed. During the January 12 edition of "Anderson Cooper 360" on CNN, several network hosts and reporters fired back in defense.

(The panel discussion starts at 5:30 in the above video.)

Joining Anderson Cooper was fellow CNN host Jake Tapper, who ripped into Donald Trump and his transition team. "This has been the modus operandi for President-elect Trump and his team," Tapper said, before adding, "to say what they believe to be true even if it is disputed by facts, and then stick with it." Tapper didn't stop there, labeling the Trump team as "fact-free campaign."

Jim Acosta, who was denied a question during the press conference, didn't hold back his thoughts on Donald Trump and the rhetoric that has been coming out of his transition team.

"There’s something worse than fake news and that's the denial of real news," Acosta stated, while also noting, "They're just not in command of the facts." Acosta went on to explain that the Trump team "go(es) after the messenger" when they hear news they don't like. Also on the panel was Jim Sciutto, who accused Trump and his team of having "hostility to facts," while claiming there was a "concerted effort" by the president-elect to keep that message moving forward.

Next up

Despite the ongoing and growing feud with the media and the press, Donald Trump is now just a week away from heading into the White House and becoming the next commander in chief on Inauguration Day. As Trump and his administration get set to run the United States, it's expected that his feud with the media will also remain.
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