Washington (CNN) In Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, President Donald Trump was asked about reporting by a slew of media organizations -- including CNN -- that he had ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire special counsel Bob Mueller.

"Fake news," Trump replied. "Fake news. Typical New York Times fake stories."

And that was it. Which is not good enough. Not even close to good enough.

The reporting that Trump had ordered Mueller's firing is a) deeply sourced b) confirmed -- after being first broken by The New York Times -- by a number of serious and credible media outlets and c) very detailed as to how and why Trump moved to fire Mueller.

Given both the seriousness of those charges and the depth of the reporting, it is a massive -- and, likely, purposeful -- cop-out by Trump to simply reply with his standard issue "fake news."

Read More