President Trump said the White House will “probably terminate” subscriptions to newspapers The New York Times and The Washington Post for being “fake.”
During a far-reaching interview Monday on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Mr. Trump railed against CNN’s “crazy Anderson Cooper” for being too lenient on presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden when it came to his son Hunter Biden’s role in the Ukraine scandal.
“If that were my sons that took this $168 million from this very questionable … energy company and they knew nothing about energy — he knew nothing about energy and has a bad track record, including getting thrown out of the Navy, even the way he got into the Navy is interesting in his position — if that were Don Jr. or Eric Trump, who are very outstanding young men, it would be the biggest story of the century,” the president said.
Mr. Hannity asked, “What does it say about the media? I agree with you.”
Mr. Trump responded that the news media is “corrupt” and then announced he would likely “terminate” the White House’s subscriptions to the two newspapers.
“The New York Times, which is a fake newspaper. We don’t even want it in the White House anymore, we’re gonna probably terminate that and The Washington Post. They’re fake,” he said.
In context, Mr. Trump didn’t appear to threaten pulling the press access to the two newspapers, which have written numerous articles critical of his presidency.
However, it was enough for Ted Boutrous, the attorney who represented CNN’s Jim Acosta and Playboy’s Brian Karem when their press credentials were pulled, to cry foul.
“More compelling evidence, indeed another confession, that @realdonaldtrump and his team engage in content- and viewpoint- discrimination regarding certain (indeed many) members of the White House press corps, in plain violation of the First Amendment,” he tweeted.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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