CNN blasts Trump after he calls it FAKE NEWS and claims Fox News ratings for his inauguration were 'many times higher' 

  • President Donald Trump touted Fox News' ratings last night in a tweet, saying the 'public is smart' for watching Fox over 'FAKE NEWS' CNN 
  • CNN's public relations team shot back - writing in a tweet that CNN and Fox's inauguration day viewership on television was essentially the same 
  • Fox did beat CNN during the swearing-in ceremony and primetime, but CNN's tweet accounted for overall eyeballs on January 20 

By Nikki Schwab, U.s. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com

Published: 12:21 EST, 25 January 2017 | Updated: 12:29 EST, 25 January 2017

CNN slapped back at President Donald Trump, who suggested that Fox News was the ratings winner on inauguration day. 

In a pinned tweet from the CNN public relations team, the cable network pointed out that CNN and Fox News had similar numbers on inauguration day and Fox was not 'many times higher' as the president said. 

'According to Nielsen cumulative numbers, 34 million people watched CNN's inauguration day coverage on television. 34 million watched Fox News,' the tweet read.

Scroll down for video 

President Donald Trump continued his war with the media by suggesting that Fox News had creamed CNN in the ratings on inauguration day 

CNN's public relations team sent out a tweet in response to President Trump, which noted that throughout inauguration day, Fox and CNN basically had the same viewership 

Last night Donald Trump tweeted that the 'public was smart' because Fox News' ratings were 'many times higher' than those of CNN on inauguration day 

'There were an additional 16.9 million live video starts on CNN Digital platforms,' it continued. 

'Those are the facts.' 

Trump had gotten online last night to tout Fox News' performance. 

'Congratulations to Fox News for being number one in inauguration ratings,' Trump wrote. 'They were many times higher than FAKE NEWS CNN - public is smart!'  

Fox News did win the ratings war against CNN during parts of inauguration day. 

Fox's viewership was higher than CNN's during the actual swearing-in ceremony and during primetime. 

The numbers CNN provided in the tweet refer to viewership throughout the entirety of January 20, 2017. 

CNN's Jim Acosta (left) and President-elect Donald Trump (right) got into it at a press conference in mid-January, in which Trump labeled the cable network 'fake news' 

Trump has lambasted the mainstream media since the beginning of his candidacy, but has paid particularly close attention to CNN after the story of the dirty dossier broke. 

CNN reported on the existence of the dossier, which was information gathered by an ex-British intelligence agent to be used as opposition research against Trump. 

It was Buzzfeed, however, that released the contents of the memo, which included allegations that Trump engaged in lewd behavior in a Moscow hotel room that President Obama had once slept in. 

Trump tore into both news organization and labeled CNN 'fake news' during a contentious back and forth at a press conference nine days before the president was sworn in. 

The billionaire battled with CNN's Jim Acosta, who he wouldn't let get a question in, before shouting at the journalist, 'You are fake news.' 

Trump later took a question from another CNN reporter. 

Yesterday a CNN reporter, this time Jeff Zeleny, got into another heated display at a press conference, with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.   

Spicer had told reporters that Trump continued to believe in wide instance of voter fraud. 

Trump has been making that claim as a push back against the fact that he won the election, but lost the popular vote to rival Hillary Clinton. 

Zeleny asked how 'comfortable' Trump was with his win, if he's still making the voter fraud claims, adding, 'maybe he didn't win if that's the case.'   

'He's very comfortable with his win,' Spicer replied.  

Zeleny then asked what Trump's voter fraud claims 'mean for democracy.' 

'It means I've answered your question,' Spicer said, before moving on.  

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