Trump’s attack on the media brings a crowd to its feet
NEW YORK TIMES
President Trump spoke Saturday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump began his holiday weekend with another denunciation of the news media, using a celebration of U.S. veterans and freedom at a Saturday evening rally to thunder that he would not allow the “fake” media to stop his agenda.
Speaking to raucous supporters at a faith rally at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Trump brought the crowd to its feet by condemning news organizations.
“The fake media is trying to silence us,” Trump told the crowd after returning to Washington briefly from his weekend getaway at his golf club in New Jersey. “But we will not let them. Because the people know the truth. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president and they’re not.”
Earlier in the day, the president posted on Twitter about the fake media and accused secretaries of state from around the country of trying to hide something from a panel investigating widespread voter fraud that experts say never happened.
In a Twitter message Saturday morning, Trump said that “numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?”
The president set up the panel to find evidence for his debunked claim that millions of votes were cast illegally in the 2016 presidential election.
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Trump continued his attack on Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” two days after saying on Twitter that Brzezinski had been “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
On Saturday, he added: “Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!”
Trump also continued his criticism of CNN.
The president wrote: “I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It’s about time!”
The president may have been referring to the latest hidden camera video produced by James O’Keefe, the right-wing activist. The video appears to show a producer for CNN’s “New Day” program calling Trump “a clown” and “crazy.” The producer also appears to say U.S. voters are “stupid.”
O’Keefe’s previous videos have been found to be selectively edited and designed to disparage his subjects.
A spokesman for CNN declined to comment.
© 2017 The New York Times Company
