CNN presenter calls out Donald Trump's adviser Kellyanne Conway for claiming Russia allegations are 'fake news'

Anderson Cooper repeatedly challenged Kellyanne Conway to demonstrate why the CNN report was false in the TV clash

A CNN presenter has called out Donald Trump’s team for accusing the organisation of peddling “fake news”, after the network was the first to report allegations that the President-elect was potentially “compromised” by Russian intelligence on his private life.

Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to the former reality star, made several late night TV appearances in a bid to play down allegations that her boss had been “cultivated, supported and assisted” by Vladimir Putin after the latter reportedly gathered damning evidence about Mr Trump’s personal life.

She attacked CNN and BuzzFeed News for publishing the allegations – which it later emerged were of a graphic sexual nature – and said they were “unsubstantiated”.

CNN did publish the news that outgoing President Barack Obama and Mr Trump had received security briefings including the allegations. BuzzFeed then released the full unverified intelligence report.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump held a press conference where he refused take a question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta.

Following comments where Mr Trump furiously denied the allegations, Mr Acosta asked: “Since you’re attacking our news organisation, will you give us a question?”

Mr Trump replied that he wouldn’t because CNN “[is] fake news”.

President-elect Donald Trump dismissed the allegations against him in a press conference on Wednesday

But CNN host Anderson Cooper called out Ms Conway, who was Mr Trump’s campaign manager during the latter stages of the 2016 election, saying the allegations against the broadcaster were “simply not true”.

She responded by saying the original allegations were "not true" and CNN sources were "not correct".

He called on her to state “here and now” that allegations made by Mr Trump’s Press Secretary, Sean Spicer – that Mr Acosta had been “rude, inappropriate and disrespectful” and owed the President-elect an apology – were incorrect.

But Ms Conway refused saying "our press secretary Sean Spicer was absolutely correct and so was our President-elect", adding that CNN "went first and BuzzFeed went second" in reporting the story.

“I know that CNN must be feeling the heat today,” she said – claiming the headline on their story was incorrect because Mr Trump had never receive a security briefing about the issue.

In December, Mr Trump said he has declined daily security briefings by members of the intelligence services because he is “like...a smart person” and doesn’t need them every day.

She said NBC News had reported that Mr Trump had not been verbally briefed on the Russian intelligence claim but Mr Cooper clarified that CNN had never suggested he had – just that he had been presented with a two-page document detailing the information.

Ms Conway then attempted to backtrack and said they did not discuss the content of intelligence briefings when Mr Cooper interrupted her to point she had just denied he had been given the intelligence at all in the briefing.

She also admitted she was not in the briefing but said journalists weren't either so they could not verify it and suggested the source of CNN's "raw material" was information provided by the Democrats.

She called the story "just fake, its not even news" and claimed news outlets had been chasing the "rumours" for months.

Refusing to let the issue rest Mr Cooper asked her what was inaccurate about the content of the CNN report and said "CNN is not BuzzFeed. I wish you guys would just be straightforward and just say so."

He added that he "understands politically why it is important to link CNN and BuzzFeed" but said CNN did not approve of BuzzFeed releasing the full 35-page memo without any verification of its content.

She then claimed "CNN and BuzzFeed had a lot in common" because they both said Hillary Clinton was going to win the election – even though opinion polls consistently reported this was likely to happen.

Ms Conway then attempted to change tack by blaming Mr Obama for failing to stop cyber hacking during his presidency and said the media only started caring about the issue after the election.

Mr Cooper then tried to talk over her, accusing her of “pivoting” over the issue, and said: “What is inaccurate in our reporting? Because you said, you weren’t in the briefing. You don’t know if what we’re reporting is true or not.

“You weren’t in the briefing and I guess you haven’t heard anything about what was in the briefing from anyone who was there… How can you say it’s not true?”

Mr Trump and his team have consistently denied having any connection to the Kremlin and said there was no conclusive evidence of Russian interference in the election.