Trump tweets altered CNN clip mocking Cuomo segment

President Trump on Friday evening tweeted an edited video clip of a CNN segment with anchor Chris Cuomo, replacing the voice of Cuomo’s mother with sound bites of Trump instead.

It wasn’t immediately clear who originally made the edited clip, which mocked a segment of Cuomo’s show earlier this week that sought to disprove Trump’s defense against a key impeachment witness’s testimony to lawmakers. 

pic.twitter.com/Mn4EJ7Jbh8

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2019

Trump has disputed testimony from impeachment inquiry witness David Holmes, a U.S. Embassy staffer in Kyiv, Ukraine, who said he could hear U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland during a conversation with the president that was not on speakerphone.{mosads}

“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!” Trump tweeted earlier this week. 

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

In Cuomo’s segment, Cuomo used a speaker and phoned his mother to try and prove it is possible to hear a conversation over a speaker. But Trump supporters and allies were quick to point out it actually appeared to be difficult for Cuomo’s mother to hear what was going on and suggested Cuomo had actually proved Trump’s point with his on-air experiment.

“Can you just say hello? Mom? She probably can’t hear me,” Cuomo says in the original clip trying to get his mother’s attention. “Mom, can you hear me?”

“Yes, I hear you. When you talk to me, I hear you,” Cuomo’s mother finally responded before Cuomo ended the experiment.

The clip tweeted by Trump on Friday night echoed the criticism of Cuomo by other conservatives, replacing Cuomo’s mother’s voice with Trump calling them “fake news” and saying “your mother is voting for Trump!”

The edited clip also featured a banner that read: “To Disprove President Trump Wrong Chris Cuomo Has A Mental Breakdown On TV And Calls His Mom.”

It’s not the first time Trump has tweeted an edited video or photo to mock a critic or tout his accomplishments. Earlier this year he tweeted a video that showed him running for president indefinitely as well as an edited photo of him presenting a medal to the dog injured in the U.S. military operation in Syria that led to the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.