CNN’s Brian Stelter boasts he didn't post 'cunning' response to Donald Trump Jr. calling him a Potato Head
“I didn’t post anything... he wanted me to respond,” Stelter told viewers
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter insisted Sunday he had some real zingers for Donald Trump Jr. for comparing him to Mr. Potato Head but refrained from responding on Twitter because that’s what the former president’s son wanted.
He decided to let viewers know he took the high road.
"I thought of some really cunning responses, really clever ways to reply, some way to go viral. But then, I stopped," Stelter said on "Reliable Sources," his weekly media affairs program.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}HASBRO REBRANDING MR. POTATO HEAD TOY LINE AS GENDER-NEUTRAL 'POTATO HEAD’
CNN in-house media critic Brian Stelter insists he had a really "cunning" response to Donald Trump Jr. comparing him to Mr. Potato Head but refrained from responding on Twitter.
The strange story began last week when toy conglomerate Hasbro announced the mustachioed Mr. Potato Head and clean-shaven Mrs. Potato Head would soon be rebranded as the gender-neutral "Potato Head" toy line.
As a result of the news, Stelter began trending on social media. Many critics of the liberal CNN host made jokes equating Stelter to Mr. Potato Head, and Trump Jr. took it offline during his speech at CPAC.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Hasbro now wants a gender neutral Mr. Potato Head. These are the issues of our times, folks. I mean, if Hasboro really wanted a gender-neutral Potato Head so badly they should just slap a picture of CNN’s Brian Stelter on the cover of their next potato. They don’t call him Mr. Potato Head for nothing," Trump. Jr. said.
Stelter decided not to engage, but he reversed himself during the opening segment of his show.
"On Friday I was about to go get dinner for my kids when Donald Trump Jr. attacked me in his speech at CPAC. Something about me looking like a gender-neutral potato head," Stelter said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I didn’t post anything," he added. "It was just another distraction. He wanted me to respond. This was just more B.S. fuel for the culture war. And it does not matter."
It’s unclear why Stelter ignored the insult on social media but then addressed it on television.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The best thing we can do for each other in this world of tweet storms is to refuse to be confused by that noise, refuse to be distracted. There is too much real news going on. There is no time for potato head," Stelter told CNN viewers when he could have been covering the aforementioned "real news."
Trump Jr. took notice of Stelter responding by bragging he didn’t respond and simply wrote, "LOL."
Fox News’ Michael Bartiromo contributed to this report.