Thanks to Donald Trump's declaration that every story he doesn't like is "fake news," all of the surrogates have picked up the banner and are carrying it on cable news now.

Tonight's messenger was Paris Dennard, a Republican consultant who worked in the office of Black Outreach during the George W. Bush administration. Apparently he was auditioning for a new gig for Trump, because he simply would not stop claiming that a real story was fake news, until Don Lemon lost his patience during a discussion of the ridiculous costs to protect Trump and his family when they leave the Washington, D.C. area.

"This story we are doing is not to intentionally deceive anyone," Lemon chided Dennard. "We are talking about the cost to keep a president safe."

"There is nothing fake about that," he continued. "Stop it with the stupid talking point that it is a fake news story."

As Mitch McConnell might have said, he was warned. He was given an explanation. Nevertheless, he persisted.

When Lemon invited him to go ahead and speak, Dennard replied, "Don, this is a fake news story in my opinion."

An exasperated and angry Lemon turned to the camera and said, "Thank you very much, everyone. Thanks for watching. Have a great weekend. Good night, all."

And that was that. Four minutes early.

My only advice for CNN is to quit putting these yahoos on the air and letting them burnish their resumés with the badge of "CNN commentator." They're nothing but echo chambers for Republicans and their Dear Leader at this point, adding plenty of noise to obscure the signal.