CNN’s primetime lineup quickly pivots from dismissing Durham report to ignoring it

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Fired FBI official Andrew McCabe claims Durham report not a legitimate investigation: Nothing new here

Andrew McCabe stood by the Mueller investigation and Russia probe into Trump after the Durham report implicated him for failing "to uphold" the FBIs mission of "strict fidelity to the law."

CNN’s primetime lineup quickly went from largely dismissing the Durham report to ignoring it altogether. 

The word "Durham" was not mentioned on CNN during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a search using Grabien Media. 

The sudden pivot away from Special Counsel John Durham’s report indicated the Department of Justice and FBI "failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law" when it launched the Trump-Russia investigation that never found any collusion after CNN dismissed its findings on Monday. 

Special Counsel John Durham, who then-United States Attorney General William Barr appointed in 2019 after the release of the Mueller report to probe the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, arrives at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on May 17, 2022, in Washington, D.C.  (Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)

FIRED FBI OFFICIAL ANDREW MCCABE CLAIMS DURHAM REPORT NOT A 'LEGITIMATE INVESTIGATION': 'NOTHING NEW HERE’

CNN contributor Andrew McCabe, the former FBI Deputy Director who was fired by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2018, joined "Anderson Cooper 360" on Monday following the release of Durham’s report. 

"I vehemently disagree with Mr. Durham’s characterizations of what we did in the report and it’s very simple. He betrays a deep misunderstanding of not only what we knew at the time, but how we make these decisions," McCabe told Anderson Cooper. 

"There is nothing new here," McCabe said, insisting that Durham never intended on producing an honest investigation into the anti-Trump Russia probe.

Instead of expanding on, or following up, its Durham coverage, CNN’s primetime lineup of "AC 360," "CNN Primetime" and "CNN Tonight" featured segments including the battle over abortion on North Carolina, coverage of the ongoing war in Ukraine, an intruder breaking into the home of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, protests in San Francisco over a shoplifter being shot by a Walgreen’s security guard, artificial intelligence concerns, the debt ceiling, New York City’s migrant issues and author Salman Rushdie. 

While CNN only spent one night on Durham’s findings, the network spent years pushing the since-debunked theory that President Trump colluded with the Kremlin ahead of the 2016 election.

READ DURHAM’S REPORT ON THE ORIGINS OF THE FBI’S RUSSIAN COLLUSION PROBE

CNN contributor Andrew McCabe, the former FBI Deputy Director who was fired by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2018, joined "Anderson Cooper 360" on Monday following the release of Durham’s report. 

Fox News Digital obtained Durham’s 330-plus page report Monday afternoon after his years-long investigation into the origins of the FBI’s original investigation, known as "Crossfire Hurricane." That investigation looked into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Durham's report revealed that the FBI spent years investigating alleged collusion between former President Trump and Russia with little merit, stating "that the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report."

TRUMP SAYS THERE MUST BE A ‘HEAVY PRICE TO PAY’ FOR COMEY, DEMOCRATS AFTER RELEASE OF DURHAM REPORT

CNN pundits spent years pushing the since-debunked theory that President Trump colluded with the Kremlin ahead of the 2016 election.  (standard bearer. Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Durham said his investigation also revealed that "senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information that they received, especially information received from politically-affiliated persons and entities" and that this information "in part triggered and sustained Crossfire Hurricane and contributed to the subsequent need for Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation."

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The report also called out McCabe before he went on his CNN platform to bash Durham, who wrote that the FBI "did not adequately examine or question these materials and the motivations of those providing them, even when at about the same time the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contrary intelligence."

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Yael Halon contributed to this report.