Updated 6.25pm
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has posted a doctored video of himself attacking a person with CNN’s logo superimposed over their face.
The footage stems from Trump’s appearance on WrestleMania 10 years ago.
Can’t watch the video? Click here.
CNN responded with the following statement: “It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters. Clearly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Trump’s deputy press secretary) lied when she said the President had never done so.
Instead of preparing for his overseas trip, his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, dealing with North Korea and working on his health care bill, he is instead involved in juvenile behaviour far below the dignity of his office. We will keep doing our jobs. He should start doing his.
“The president in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence,” Huckabee Sanders said during a press conference last week, adding: “If anything, quite the contrary.”
Earlier, Trump defended his aggressive use of Twitter after a series of anti-media tweets, some of which attacked individual journalists.
Trump targeted CNN, NBC and a morning show host he taunted as “dumb as a rock”.
“The FAKE & FRAUDULENT NEWS MEDIA is working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media – but remember, I won the 2016 election with interviews, speeches and social media,” Trump said on Twitter.
“I had to beat #FakeNews, and did. We will continue to WIN!” he posted yesterday, before ending the day at a rally in Washington that included a similar anti-media barrage.
In recent days, the US leader has railed against major news organisations as “fake news”, and launched a crude personal attack on Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who headline the Morning Joe programme on the left-leaning MSNBC cable network.
“Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!” he wrote yesterday, seemingly trying to get in the final word in his clash with the journalists.
Apparently stung by critical coverage on the show, Trump on Thursday had tweeted: “I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore).
Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!
The presenters responded to the president’s tweets on their show, saying they were untrue and that his behaviour on social media was concerning for the country.
Backlash
The comments sparked a major backlash, as well as condemnation from within Trump’s own Republican Party.
The Morning Joe hosts wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled ‘Donald Trump is not well‘, questioning his “unmoored behavior” and fitness to serve.
Trump also targeted CNN, a frequent punching bag for the president.
“I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It’s about time!” he tweeted, referring to an article that the cable news channel retracted, which claimed Congress was investigating links between Trump’s administration and a Russian investment fund.
Three CNN journalists resigned over the article, which was posted on the network’s website on 22 June before being removed the next day.
In a staff meeting on Monday, CNN’s investigative unit members were told that the retraction did not mean the facts of the story were necessarily wrong. Rather, it meant that “the story wasn’t solid enough to publish as-is,” one of the people briefed on the investigation said.
“I am thinking about changing the name #FakeNews CNN to #FraudNewsCNN!”, Trump posted.
He also suggested in a tweet that veteran ex-Fox journalist Greta Van Susteren, who left MSNBC during the week, “was let go by her out of control bosses at @NBC & @Comcast because she refused to go along w/ ‘Trump hate!’”
‘Fight fire with fire’
Huckabee Sanders said Trump’s attacks on Brzezinski, Scarborough and other members of the media were part of his natural instinct to “fight fire with fire”.
In his latest tweets, those instincts seemed to be on display.
“My use of social media is not Presidential – it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL,” Trump posted on Twitter, before adding his classic tagline: “Make America Great Again!”
Capping off his day of derision, Trump lambasted the press at a Fourth of July ‘Freedom Rally’ in Washington, stating: “The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but I’m president and they’re not.
“The dishonest media will never keep us from accomplishing our objectives on behalf of our great American people,” he added.
“The fact is, the press has destroyed themselves because they went too far.”
- © AFP 2017 with reporting by Órla Ryan
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