Howard Dean invokes 'fake news'

Howard Dean invokes 'fake news' in Clinton 2016 coverage

By QUINT FORGEY

Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, on Sunday accused reporters of spreading fake news about Hillary Clinton during her 2016 bid for the White House.

The former Vermont governor and 2004 presidential candidate, appearing on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” was asked by host Brian Stelter to offer advice to members of the media covering the growing field of 2020 contenders.

“I’d do a better job than you did against Hillary Clinton — don’t make up news,” Dean said.

The retort elicited raised eyebrows from Stelter, CNN’s chief media correspondent, and his other guests, including The Daily Beast’s Washington bureau chief, Jackie Kucinich, who replied: “Oh, come on, Howard. Come on.”

“What news was made up, Howard?” Stelter asked.

“News, for example, of the Canadian nickel mine that was supposedly being pushed by the Russians when The Times inverted the time frame and never corrected it,” Dean said. “There’s a long list.”

It was not clear to which specific report Dean was referring, though The New York Times in April 2015 published an article headlined “Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Clinton over the so-called Uranium One deal, and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions raised the possibility in November 2017 that a special counsel might be appointed to investigate the matter as part of a broader probe of the Clinton Foundation.

Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear energy agency, in 2010 took ownership of a 51 percent share of a Canadian company, Uranium One, with mining interests in the U.S. Clinton was secretary of State in 2010 when the State Department signed off on Rosatom’s purchase of Uranium One. Rosatom would go on to take full ownership of the company in 2013.

There is no direct evidence of a quid pro quo among Clinton, the State Department, Rosatom and Clinton Foundation donors with ties to Uranium One.