Polish President Slams ‘Fake News’ Over Bogus Handshake Flap

Polish President Andrej Duda took to Twitter to slam U.S. journalists who claimed Friday that President Trump was snubbed by Poland’s first lady, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, after a widely circulated (and selectively edited) video clip appeared to show Kornhauser-Duda ignoring Trump in order to shake first lady Melania Trump’s hand.

“Contrary to some surprising reports my wife did shake hands with Mrs. and Mr. Trump @POTUS after a great visit. Let’s FIGHT FAKE NEWS,” Duda tweeted from his English-language Twitter account.

[lz_ndn video=32658312]

Even in the edited video it appears likely Kornhauser-Duda went to shake Trump’s hand but continued straight on to Melania Trump after it seemed the president was still in conversation with her husband.

But regardless of what the video clip appears to show or not show, the full, unedited clip of the exchange makes it obvious that Kornhauser-Duda did not intentionally “snub” President Trump. None of that was important to liberals in the media, however, who jumped on yet another chance to embarrass the president.

“President Trump gets snubbed by Poland’s First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda,” read a tweet from CNBC.

“ANOTHER SNUB FOR TRUMP Poland’s First Lady, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, swerved away from Trump to shake Melania’s hand,” tweeted Huffington Post contributor Aaron Vallely.

[lz_third_party align=center includes=https://twitter.com/Vallmeister/status/883080681492021248]

“Not all heroes wear capes,” tweeted ShareBlue editor Jess McIntosh along with a link to a ShareBlue article highlighting the “snub.”

[lz_third_party align=center includes=https://twitter.com/jess_mc/status/882994778023112704]

“OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD,” tweeted CNN’s Chris Cillizza with a link to the edited video. Eventually realizing his accidental foray into fake news, Cillizza deleted the tweet.

It was “a non-story,” Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture at the Media Research Center, told LifeZette. “Yet CNN’s editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza, embarrassed himself and his ‘news’ organization by overhyping the story on Twitter.”

[lz_related_box id=”816926″]

Gainor said Cillizza’s behavior surrounding the video is emblematic of CNN’s abandonment of journalistic ethics in the pursuit of ratings.

“He posted an image of the alleged handshake snub and wrote ‘OHMYGOD’ 11 times above it — only to recant later. This is the ready, shoot, aim strategy of a failing ‘news’ network,” said Gainor.

“CNN is in a well-deserved death spiral brought on by the over-the-top, anti-Trump actions of its employees. For the sake of journalism, I hope more responsible people take over,” Gainor continued. “Failing that, the network will provide comedy relief for the rest of the Trump years.”

Cillizza’s reaction was effectively universal among the Left, and by mid-Friday morning the video was trending on Facebook and Twitter.