Donald Trump surrogate walks out of CNN interview over inaccuracies in his personal bio
Pastor Mark Burns, a fiery surrogate for Donald Trump, walked out of a CNN interview as he faced pointed questions about his credentials.
The interview, which took place on Wednesday, was aired Saturday afternoon.
In it, the South Carolina clergyman lauded Donald Trump as “a great judge of character.”
At one point, CNN news anchor, Victor Blackwell, pointed out some apparent inconsistencies in the pastor’s professional resume — among them were claims made on Burns’ church website that he was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, a predominantly black fraternity. The organization, according to CNN, said it had no record of Burns’ membership.
Burns implied that the website containing that information may have been hacked.
Blackwell noted other inconsistencies, including that Burns claimed to have served six years in the US Army Reserves. A statement from the Army to CNN contradicted that assertion as well.
“He has no active Army or Army Reserves service time,” the statement read.
Claims that Burns earned a bachelor’s degree from a South Carolina university and was currently working on a master’s degree were also debunked.
Appearing stunned, Burns accused the CNN host of “trying to destroy [his] character,” and said that the information in question was “extremely old.” After a tense back-and-forth, Burns walked out of the interview.
Burns issued a statement on Friday acknowledging that he “overstated several details” in his biography.
Watch the exchange below:
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