President Trump renewed his feud with CNN on Saturday, taking a swipe at the network that has kept him pressed to the wall for the past year.
Trump fed his daily red meat to his famished base on Twitter:
.@FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the U.S., CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2017
That he’s singing the praises of Fox News is no surprise. Trump is the most petulant, petty, and vindictive president in modern history. He has done the Herculean task of making a corrupt Obama look mature, by comparison. He is an embarrassment of immeasurable proportions.
Fox News gets a pass because the majority of the on-air talent for the network grovel and snivel at Trump’s feet, tossing softball interviews and cooing with doe eyes over anything he says, no matter how bizarre and unhinged.
So what’s the latest beef to get Trump’s Depends in a knot?
The tweet comes amid tensions over a potential merger between AT&T and Time Warner. The Justice Department allegedly told AT&T to sell off either CNN’s parent company or DirecTV as a condition of approving the merger.
The department formally sued AT&T to block the $85 billion merger on Monday, arguing that it would hurt competition and consumers.
AT&T has denied it has offered to sell the cable network, or that it would in the future.
The Justice Department move has drawn criticism from observers who note that Trump is often critical of CNN.
And Trump has further said that he feels the merger would be bad for America.
Maybe, but that doesn’t justify another shameless attack on the press.
Shortly after the attack, CNN personalities struck back.
.@realDonaldTrump My @CNNi & @CNN colleagues regularly risk their lives in #Syria #Iraq #Afghanistan #Niger and beyond, following US Troops into war-zones, chronicling natural disasters, holding dictators to account & profiling everyday heroes. #FactsFirst https://t.co/A2qobamywz
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) November 25, 2017
Inside the US, CNN’s reporting is protected by the First Amendment and the courts. Outside the US, US-affiliated journalists do ultimately depend on the protection of the US government. Trump’s words are a direct attack on those international journalists' freedom & even safety
— David Frum (@davidfrum) November 25, 2017
Thinking about @cnni and my brave and hard-working colleagues there who cover famines and wars and politics and terrorism and everything else. Amazing men and women, thank you for your continued excellence. https://t.co/9sVaB0z4Li
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 25, 2017
And the network directly chose to answer, as well.
It's not CNN's job to represent the U.S to the world. That's yours. Our job is to report the news. #FactsFirst 🍎
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) November 25, 2017
Good for them. And well said.
One final shot came from Oliver Darcy:
Today in real life: The president directs ppl to MAGA pill dot com after claiming CNNi embarrasses U.S. in front of world w/misinformation https://t.co/2ZWiYMytUf
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) November 25, 2017
Trump: CNNi embarrassing the US in front of world with ~fake news~
Trump, 48 min later, to the world: Go to MAGA pill dot com
🤔🤔🤔
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) November 25, 2017
Maybe Trump should just get back to the golf course and stop trying to control the direction of the news, or cut out networks that don’t cater to his ego.
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