'Well, this is a nice way to start off': Donald Trump scolds CNN's Chris Cuomo during awkward interview opening

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Monday confronted Donald Trump over his repeated attempts to cast former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as an "enabler" of her husband's decades-old marital infidelities.

In an interview on CNN's "New Day," Cuomo told Trump that a panel of voters responded negatively to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's line of attack.

"We have a panel of independent voters, they are smart as heck, and most of them don't like it," Cuomo said, noting that the panel found the attacks "hypocritical" coming from Trump. 

"What is your thinking on this line of attack?" he added.

Trump immediately criticized the anchor for not congratulating the real-estate mogul on his Republican presidential primary victory.

"Well, this is a nice way to start off the interview," he said. "First of all, you should congratulate me for having won the race."

When Cuomo noted that he congratulated Trump during a previous interview, Trump sarcastically thanked the CNN anchor and slammed the network, referring to it as the "Clinton Network."

"Thank you very much. So warm and so well felt," Trump said.

He continued: "You start off with this question, which is not surprising, because I understand CNN perhaps a lot better than you do."

Cuomo restarted his line of questioning, saying he was "surprised" Trump chose to label the former secretary of state as "an enabler" of her husband's past infidelities.

"Why waste time with that?" Cuomo said.

"She is playing the woman's card to the hilt. I watched over the weekend, and everything is about women, and, 'Donald Trump raised his voice,'" Trump said, imitating Clinton. "It's all nonsense."

Trump has faced backlash over what his critics say are gender-centric attacks on Clinton, who looks likely to be his opponent in November's general election. The real-estate magnate maintains high unfavorable numbers among many female voters, which may be attributable in part to his long history of controversial statements about women.

On Monday, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee criticized Cuomo for allegedly blowing Trump's comments about Bill Clinton out of proportion. But immediately after chiding Cuomo, Trump noted that the various 1990s scandals were a "big thing."

"You took a small amount of the speech and you build it up like it's the biggest thing in the world," Trump said. "But it's a big thing."

Watch part of the exchange below, via CNN: