WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump’s assertions that the news media is the “enemy” of the American people (all times local):
4:45 p.m.
President Donald Trump is downplaying his daughter’s refusal to label the news media the “enemy of the people.”
Trump tweeted Thursday: “They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!”
Ivanka Trump, a senior White House adviser, was asked Thursday morning at an event hosted by Axios if the press was the “enemy of the people,” a characterization used by the president. She said she has experienced reporting she does not consider accurate but said she did not agree with the description.
At the White House press briefing later Thursday, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to distance herself from the president’s labeling of the news media as an “enemy.”
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2:25 p.m.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has refused to break with the president and say she does not think the news media is the “enemy” of the American people.
Sanders was pressed on the question Thursday by CNN correspondent Jim Acosta during a White House briefing.
In a heated exchange, Sanders listed a litany of complaints against the press and blamed the media for inflaming tensions in the country.
The exchange came hours after the president’s eldest daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump, said in an interview that she does not view the news media as “the enemy of the people,” breaking with her father.
Acosta later walked out of the briefing in protest. Another reporter quickly filled his seat.
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