Responding to the president’s Fake News Awards, CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta called President Trump the “king of fake news.”
“I would say, having been called ’fake news’ myself, that the president of the United States is the king of fake news,” Mr. Acosta said. “He is the king of fake news.”
Mr. Acosta made the remark during a panel discussion, “Journalism in the Trump Era: Assessing Press Freedom in the United States,” Wednesday night at the Newseum in D.C.
He said crowning Mr. Trump the “king of fake news” should not be interpreted as a “political” statement.
“It’s just a fact,” the journalist said. “You know, we’ve been saying there’s an apple and there’s a banana. You know, we’ve been sticking to apples; they’re throwing out a lot of bananas.”
Mr. Trump revealed the winners of the Fake News Awards on Wednesday night.
CNN received four awards for reports that turned out to be inaccurate — most recently, that Mr. Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr., had early access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks.
The network issued a correction last month after misreporting the date of an email from WikiLeaks to the president’s son.
Mr. Acosta was kicked out of the Oval Office on Tuesday after asking if the president wanted more immigrants from Norway.
“I want them to come in from everywhere, everywhere,” Mr. Trump responded.
“Just Caucasian or white countries, sir?” the reporter asked.
“Out,” the president shot back, pointing to Mr. Acosta.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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