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HomeShowTop US journalist Steve Scully suspended after false Twitter hacking claims

Top US journalist Steve Scully suspended after false Twitter hacking claims

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Daily US Times: The C-SPAN television network has suspended its political editor Steve Scully after he admitted to lying about his Twitter account being hacked last week.

The top US journalist tapped to moderate this week’s presidential debate between Trump and Biden before it was cancelled, had appeared to solicit advice from a former Trump adviser.

When the exchange prompted controversy, the journalist suggested he had been hacked.

Steve Scully issued a statement apologising, said he had let down his colleagues. “I ask for their forgiveness,” he wrote.

The news comes on the same day that the political veteran had been scheduled to moderate the second debate between Republican President Donald Trump and his challenger Joe Biden. The event was cancelled last week after the Mr Trump refused to participate the debate virtually following his Covid-19 diagnosis.

The president criticised Scully last week, calling him a “Never Trumper” – invoking a label used for Republicans who refused to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

Scully responded, tagging former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who is now a vocal critic of the president: “@Scaramucci should I respond to Trump.”

Scully said in his statement on Thursday that he had sent the tweet “out of frustration” after “relentless criticism” regarding his role as moderator, including from President Donald Trump.

He wrote: “The next morning when I saw that this tweet had created a new controversy, I falsely claimed that my Twitter account had been hacked,” apologising for these two “errors in judgement”.

Soon after Scully’s suspension was announced, President Trump responded to the news, heralding his own “good instincts”.

You may read: Trump and Biden deflect key questions in TV town halls

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