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CNN boss Jeff Zucker brands Rudy Giuliani a 'useful idiot,' slams President Trump's legal team as 'crazy,' and says allegations Biden is a pedophile are 'filth', new secret recordings reveal

  The head of CNN once referred to Rudy Giuliani as a 'useful idiot' and called President Trump's legal team 'crazy' dur...

 The head of CNN once referred to Rudy Giuliani as a 'useful idiot' and called President Trump's legal team 'crazy' during a staff meeting, according to newly released recordings.

In leaked audio obtained by Project Veritas, CNN president Jeff Zucker is heard speaking to editorial staff about Giuliani's corruption allegations against Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. 

During the call, a staffer tells Zucker that the 'real craziness is the client, not the lawyer', referring to Trump and Giuliani, to which Zucker replies: 'Of course.' 

'Right, well, I think you raise a good point about not just pawning it off on the crazy legal team, but the client [Trump] is the one who is directing the crazy legal team,' Zucker adds.  

'There is a term for what Rudy Giuliani is suspected of being which is "useful idiot",' he says in another clip. 'From America's mayor to useful idiot.'  


CNN President Jeff Zucker
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and President Trump's personal attorney

CNN President Jeff Zucker (left) once referred to Rudy Giuliani (right), President Trump's personal attorney, as a 'useful idiot,' newly obtained recordings reveal

CNN's Zucker blasts Giuliani as 'useful idiot' on leaked call
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Zucker is also heard characterizing the Hunter Biden email story as a 'disinformation campaign' pushed by Giuliani. 

The clips released on Thursday are the latest installment of a CNN expose by Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe who secretly recorded Zucker's daily 9am conference calls 'for months.'  

The scoop is aimed at the cable news network which has long been accused of harboring a liberal and anti-Trump bias.  

In another clip, the CNN chief is heard directing network staff to disregard claims promoted by Trump that Joe Biden was engaged in pedophilia after the president retweeted an image that contained the allegation in September.

'We can beat them at their game…#PedoBiden,' read the tweet which was shared by Trump.

The tweet contained a GIF of Biden leaning in to whisper into an adult woman's ear with his hands resting on her shoulder.


Zucker is heard in the recording criticizing conservative network Newsmax for covering the pedophilia allegations, which the CNN chief referred to as 'filth.'

'With regards to the filth that they're spreading, with regard to the child pornography [allegations] and all of that. I do not believe that we should be covering those allegations even if they're out there on Newsmax,' Zucker said.

The CNN president also blasted Trump for his tweet.

'The President of the United States has just retweeted a post accusing Joe Biden of being a pedophile to his 86 million followers which is just beyond,' he said.

'You know it also is just unacceptable that the President of the United States is trafficking in this and doing it.'

Zucker warned his employees not to assume that Trump's tweets would hurt his standing in the eyes of his voters.

'Each of these so-called "scandals" for Trump, each of these things - we should just once again be careful to say that this is the one that is going to undo him with his voters,' Zucker said.

'We always think that, but we need to make sure we have a sense of what's going on out in the country and not just listen to Twitter.'

Zucker is heard on the tapes lambasting the president and his allies for promoting allegations against President-elect Joe Biden (right) and his won, Hunter Biden (left)

Zucker is heard on the tapes lambasting the president and his allies for promoting allegations against President-elect Joe Biden (right) and his won, Hunter Biden (left)

Zucker also blasted the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the country would be better off if the National Football League were heading the federal government.

'As I was reading through the comments, [CNN White House correspondent] Jim Acosta [was] talking to people in the crowd at the [Trump] rally last night, and obviously seeing all those pictures of no social distancing and very few people with masks on, et cetera,' Zucker said.

'The contrast to the football game last night, where, lots of masks, people socially distanced.'

Zucker added: 'The whole plan in place to protect the fans, the players, the referees, the coaches, everybody, you know, Andy Reid wearing a face shield on the field and the NFL, you know, it's an example of like - if the NFL was running the government, then things would probably be in much better shape than they are.' 

Earlier recordings of CNN's daily editorial meeting released by Project Veritas this week also showed how CNN deliberately ignored the Hunter Biden/Ukraine story, saying they 'obviously' wouldn't cover it and that it was an attempt by Trump's team to 'throw stuff at the wall' before the election.  

Senior staff tell Zucker that the network should downplay the bombshell story. 

Zucker also tells his staff that he doesn't think 'we should be repeating unsubstantiated smears just because the right wing media suggests that we should.'

He later called it a 'rabbit hole', saying: 'The Breitbart, New York Post, Fox News rabbit hole of Hunter Biden, which I don't think anybody outside of that world understood.' 

The story, which was first revealed in the New York Post, revealed emails that allegedly came from Hunter Biden's laptop and shed light on questionable foreign business dealings he had both before and after his father was vice president.

The Post story not only alleged a meeting between Joe Biden and a Ukrainian businessman but also published these photos of Hunter, seemingly smoking drugs (left). CNN didn't run it, calling it an attempt by Rudy Giuliani to 'to throw stuff at the wall in these closing days of the campaign'
The Post story not only alleged a meeting between Joe Biden and a Ukrainian businessman but also published these photos of Hunter, seemingly smoking drugs (left). CNN didn't run it, calling it an attempt by Rudy Giuliani to 'to throw stuff at the wall in these closing days of the campaign'

The Post story not only alleged a meeting between Joe Biden and a Ukrainian businessman but also published these photos of Hunter, seemingly smoking drugs (left). CNN didn't run it, calling it an attempt by Rudy Giuliani to 'to throw stuff at the wall in these closing days of the campaign'

Leaked tapes show CNN burying Hunter Biden laptop scandal
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CNN political director David Chalian can be heard telling Zucker that the news network would 'obviously' not be covering the story. 

'Obviously, we're not going with the New York Post story right now on Hunter Biden,' said Chalian. 

Earlier in the week, CNN threatened O'Keefe after he live streamed himself dialing in to one of Zucker's morning calls to tell him he was about to publish months of recording 

The network's PR team said: 'Legal experts say this may be a felony. We've referred it to law enforcement.' 

CNN has not yet commented on the anti-Trump bias the tapes show.  

Chalian, who is also CNN's vice president went on: 'Obviously, Hunter Biden's lawyer is quoted in the New York Post piece and we'll just continue to report out this is the very stuff that the president was impeached over, this is the stuff that Senate Committees looked at and found nothing wrong in Joe Biden's interactions with Ukrainians and now having an email that perhaps there was a meeting with someone from Burisma it seems. 

'Rudy Giuliani's sort of 'dream-o-vision' of how to throw stuff at the wall in these closing days of the campaign.' 

The Post's story told how Biden met with an executive of the company which was paying his son up to $83,000 a month to sit on its board.

At the same time, energy company Burisma, was hoping to receive favors from the American government at the same time Joe Biden was the vice president. 


During that same conference call, CNN Executive Vice President and General Counsel David Vigilante can be heard telling Zucker that 'we should be awfully careful' regarding coverage of the Hunter Biden story.  

At one point he questioned why some political reporters from other organizations had posted the story to their social media. 

'What in the world are [New York Times reporter] Maggie Haberman and [Politico reporter] Jake Sherman doing retweeting that story?' Vigilante asked with surprise.

The following week, the day after the last presidential debate in which President Trump went after Biden over the revelations regarding his son, Zucker once again could be heard brushing the story aside and referred to is as a 'rabbit hole' that 'I don't think anybody outside of that [rightwing media] world understood last night.'  

'The Trump media, you know, moves immediately from -- OK, well, never mind -- to the latest alleged scandal and expects everybody to just follow suit,' Zucker said on the call. 

'So, I don't think that we should be repeating unsubstantiated smears just because the rightwing media suggests that we should.'

In another call released by Project Veritas on Wednesday, the CNN president can be heard criticizing Trump over comments he made questioning the integrity of mail-in voting. 

'Trump's continuing to undermine the election integrity with baseless claims of fraud, okay? 

'And he's continuing to do it.

'That leads to the question of whether or not Trump, in himself, is a national security threat in light of what he's doing and in light of what he did at the debate.' 

Also on Wednesday, in a third release from Project Veritas, CNN executive Cynthia Hudson could be heard expressing her opinion over President Trump's influence over Cuban voters in Miami ahead of the election, saying they are 'attracted to bullies'. 

She surmises that the Cuban population in Florida would likely to vote for Trump because they are 'attracted to bullies.'

She then said it was 'terrifying' how many Cubans were voting for Trump in Florida. 

'No one is countering it properly in Florida, the Cubans are going to vote for Trump and that's terrifying. 

'I think that there is a way to counter the [Biden is a socialist] narrative in Florida that is not being taken advantage of.' 

The recording was from September 9 when there was just under two months to go until the election. 

'Trump has used the communism, socialism rhetoric as part of his hook for the Cubans in Miami, how that has resonated and how the Biden team has not done enough to counter that,' Hudson says. 

'The only reason they are supporting Trump is because of that narrative. 

'And that narrative and the fact that sadly, I have to say, there's a population that's very attracted to bullies.' 

Hudson, who is the senior vice president and managing director of CNN en Español, went on to say that 'no one is countering' Trump's effective messaging in Florida.

'The Cubans are going to vote for Trump. 

'And that's terrifying, and so, I think there is a way to counter the narrative in Florida that is not being taken advantage of.'

In previous clips, Vigilante called Tucker Carlson's show 'white supremacy hour'. 

'I think it's unavoidable that you have to talk about the naked racism of Tucker Carlson…

'Sort of the 'White Supremacy Hour' they have on Fox News every night...' he said. 

Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe secretly recorded CNN President Jeff Zucker's editorial meetings 'for months' and intends to release recordings every day until Christmas. He live streamed himself crashing one call and CNN responded, saying they'd reported him to police

Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe secretly recorded CNN President Jeff Zucker's editorial meetings 'for months' and intends to release recordings every day until Christmas. He live streamed himself crashing one call and CNN responded, saying they'd reported him to police

Project Veritas, at first, wrongly attributed the remark to a black employee, Marcus Mabry. They later issued a correction. 

CNN has threatened O'Keefe with legal action on Monday for crashing one of Zucker's calls to tell him he was about to publish two months of recordings. 

He also live streamed it.  

'Legal experts say this may be a felony. We've referred it to law enforcement,' CNN's Communications Twitter account said.  

O'Keefe, 36, on Tuesday said he would be releasing audio recordings of several network meetings which he claims will 'expose' Zucker and other CNN executives expressing their 'political biases'.  

O'Keefe has accused the network of furthering its own political agenda when reporting the news.  

'CNN likes to call themselves 'the most trusted name in news,' but how can the public ever trust a network that routinely bashes people simply because those people hold certain political views that are not aligned with the mainstream media?' he said. 

O'Keefe said he plans to release 'raw recordings' of more than 50 conference calls every day until Christmas.

'We're going to release the full raw tapes, maybe even twice a day and show what really goes on in these phone calls and show them for how they make the sausage, how they manufacture consent at the 'most trusted name in news,' O'Keefe concluded.

It's unclear who recorded the calls and sent them to Project Veritas.

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