TRUMP GOES NUCLEAR ON 'FAKE NEWS' GIANTS IN MEDIA
CNN, BuzzFeed smear collapses: 'This should never have been released'
Garth Kant
WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump came out swinging at the media in his first news conference since the election, livid over lurid and unverified reports he ridiculed as fake news.
Just before Trump spoke, incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer ripped a bizarre conspiracy theory pushed by U.S. intelligence agencies and the establishment media that appears to be falling apart by the hour.
Their statements were a pointed rebuttal Wednesday to unverified reports that Russia possessed compromising personal and financial information on Trump, and the president-elect blasted two American media outlets for publishing the reports, saying they were unsubstantiated.
Trump said the report “should never have been written and never have been released,” before praising other news outlets and saying his estimation of them had gone up a notch.
Incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer
“I do have to say and I must say that I want to thank a lot of the news organizations here today because they looked at that nonsense that was released by maybe the intelligence agencies,” Trump said. “But maybe the intelligence agencies, which would be a tremendous blot on their record if they did that. A thing like that should never have been written, it should never have been reported and it certainly should have never been released.”
Trump also said for the first time he believes Russia was behind hacking ahead of the election.
“I think it was Russia.”
A transcript of Trump’s remarks can be read here.
Spicer was first up at the podium, blasting BuzzFeed News as a “left-wing blog” and condemning its “irresponsible” decision to publish the Russian dossier.
“Before we start, I want to bring your attention to a few points on the report that was published in BuzzFeed last night. It is frankly outrageous and highly irresponsible left-wing blog that was openly hostile to the presidential campaign to drop highly salacious flat-out false information on the Internet just days before he takes the oath of office.”
Spicer accused BuzzFeed and CNN of engaging in “a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks.”
“It is not an intelligence report plain and simple,” he said. “It is frankly shameful and disgraceful.”
Vice president-elect Mike Pence also attacked the mainstream media for reporting “fake news” in an effort to de-legitimize the election.
At one point during the press conference, Trump got into a war of words with a CNN reporter.
“Since you are attacking us, can you give us a question?” asked Jim Acosta.
“Not you,” Trump said. “Your organization is terrible!”
“You are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir?” replied Acosta.
“I’m not going to give you a question. “I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news!” Trump responded.
“Now, Mr. president-elect, that’s not appropriate!” declared Acosta.
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