President Trump ramped up his war of words against the media Thursday, accusing them of only valuing “their hatred & agenda” but not truth.
Mr. Trump complained about “fake books” and anonymous sources, stressing “how totally dishonest much of the Media is.”
The president continued to go after CNN after its Twitter tiff Wednesday night. Mr. Trump said “hatred and extreme bias” influences CNN’s reporting, and he specifically mocked *Jeff Zucker, president of CNN.
Mr. Trump also roped in NBC News Thursday morning, saying it was the same as CNN. He slammed Lester Holt over the Russia coverage and network chairman Andy Lack.
Page Six reported, based on information from anonymous sources, that Mr. Lack may be forced from NBC News partially because of the sexual misconduct scandals at the network.
Reporters have pushed back against Mr. Trump’s accusation that Mr. Holt doctored his May interview with the president. They point out that NBC News posted the full interview back in May.
This early morning Twitter storm comes just hours after Mr. Trump mocked CNN for reporting that Mr. Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen planned to testify that the president knew in advance about the Trump Tower meeting.
Mr. Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis, revealed himself to be one of the anonymous sources in the CNN story and walked back the claim. CNN originally said that Mr. Davis refused to give a comment.
CNN shot back at the president on Twitter Wednesday night and refused to back down from its original story.
“Make no mistake, Mr. President, CNN does not lie. We report the news. And we report when people in power tell lies. CNN stands by our reporting and our reporters. There may be many fools in this story but @carlbernstein is not one of them,” CNN tweeted.
* (Correction: An earlier version of the story incorrectly identified the subject of President Trump’s tweet about CNN.)
