United States President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted once again about how CNN was “fake news”, but this time decided to add a crude video to drive home his point. The clip is an old video of Trump body-slamming and punching a man at the World Wrestling Entertainment’s Wrestlemania event, but a CNN logo has now been awkwardly slapped on to his purported victim’s face.
CNN did not waste time responding to the message. The channel chose to quote White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Sarah H Sanders, who had said on June 29: “The president in no way form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything, quite the contrary.”
CNN put out a detailed response to Trump’s video shortly after it was posted. It said:
It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters. Sarah Huckabee Sanders 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 healthcare 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.
Trump’s tweet comes a day after he attacked the media at an event in Washington DC, where he said, “The fake media is trying to silence us...The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president and they’re not.”.
This is not the first time that the US president has hit out at CNN and other news channels for critical reports on him. Earlier on Saturday, he had said on Twitter: “The FAKE & FRAUDULENT NEWS MEDIA is working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media – but remember, I won...”
All through his election campaign and even after being sworn in as president, Trump has kept up his attacks on CNN, repeatedly dubbing it “fake news”. On Saturday, he had also called the channel’s work “garbage journalism”, though it was in response to a report CNN had erroneously broadcast.
While Trump’s Wrestlemania tweet was met with appalled reactions from his detractors, several of his supporters praised it as truthful and funny.
Trump’s latest Twitter broadcast followed his widely-shared online spat with two high-profile talkshow hosts – Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” – on Saturday. Although his outbursts on Twitter have often been the subject of controversy, the US president had maintained that he will not stop sharing his thoughts in 140 characters.
“My use of social media is not presidential – it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL,” he said on Saturday. “[I won] the 2016 election with interviews, speeches and social media. I had to beat #FakeNews and did. We will continue to WIN!”
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