The lamestream media is at it again…

CNN is in hot water after an interview with a Mexican drug cartel member took an unexpected turn.

The interview, aired Saturday, featured CNN correspondent Isobel Yeung questioning a heavily disguised cartel member in an undisclosed hideout in Mexico, according to the New York Post.

Trump designated the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in a January 20 executive order, with the State Department writing that the cartel is “one of the largest producers and traffickers of fentanyl and other illicit drugs to the United States.”

“According to the Trump administration, you are a terrorist. … What do you make of that?” Yeung asked.

The masked gangster, wearing sunglasses and latex gloves to conceal his identity, initially responded, “Well, the situation is ugly, but we have to eat.”

When asked what he would say directly to Trump, the cartel member didn’t take the bait.

“My respect. According to him, he’s looking out for his people,” the gangster stated, adding, “But the problem is the consumers are in the United States. If there weren’t any consumers, we would stop.”

Social media immediately mocked CNN’s apparent attempt to elicit anti-Trump commentary from a member of a violent drug trafficking organization.

“CNN tried to create a scandal and accidentally gave Trump a campaign ad. You can’t script this kind of desperation,” one user remarked.

“Unbelievably, CNN gives Sinaloa cartel member a chance to throw a pity party about being labeled a terrorist, but the cartel member tells them President Trump is just rightly ‘looking after his people,’” another social media user pointed out.

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) suggested, “Let them [CNN] live under the rule of foreign terrorist drug traffickers for a few months. And then tell us how they feel.”

On Monday night’s edition of Fox News Channel’s Hannity, Leavitt firmly joined the backlash camp when host Sean Hannity asked for her response to the interview, calling it “despicable”:

HANNITY: Karoline, what did you and the administration make of the Sinaloa cartel gang member interviewed on CNN? Why would they care what he thinks?

LEAVITT: Well, it was fascinating to me, Sean. I was actually scrolling on Instagram when I came across this interview and it stopped me in my tracks, not just because they sat down with a member of a Mexican cartel that is now designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States government, but because of the nature of the questions of this notorious foreign terrorist. It — it was a softball interview, giving a platform to a notorious drug cartel that has killed American citizens. I thought it was quite despicable. But, again, this is just another reason why the — the trust in the legacy media is at an all-time low amongst the American public.

Over the weekend, President Trump hit back at Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum after she rejected his offer to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help fight against cartels.

While addressing reporters on Air Force One, Trump said he proposed the idea of sending American troops to deal with the Mexican cartels facilitating drug trafficking, and criticized Sheinbaum for refusing his offer.

“She’s so afraid of the cartels she can’t walk … And I think she’s a lovely woman. The president of Mexico is a lovely woman, but she is so afraid of the cartels that she can’t even think straight,” Trump said.

Sheinbaum said she told Trump at the time that Mexico would “never accept” a U.S. military presence.

“No, President Trump, our territory is inalienable, sovereignty is inalienable,” Sheinbaum claimed to have said. “We can collaborate. We can work together, but with you in your territory and us in ours. We can share information, but we will never accept the presence of the United States Army on our territory.”