Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Grappling with a wave of election-season violence, President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against the news media Monday even as he made plans for a somber visit to Pennsylvania to mourn a synagogue massacre that left 11 dead.
Days after the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue and a mail-bomb scare targeting prominent Democrats and CNN, Trump argued that “fraudulent” reporting was contributing to anger in the country and declared that the press was the “true Enemy of the People.”
Trump complained Monday night that “CNN and others in the Fake News Business” were “purposely and inaccurately reporting” that he’d called the media the “Enemy of the People.”
“Wrong! I said that the ‘Fake News [Media] is the Enemy of the People,’ a very big difference,” he said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders continued in the same vein at a press briefing, saying: “The very first action that the president did was condemn these heinous acts. The very first thing that the media did was condemn the president, go after him, try to place blame.”
While Trump has condemned the Pennsylvania shootings as an anti-Semitic act and has decried political violence, he also has continued his political schedule over the past week and largely kept up his criticism against Democrats and the media. The White House has rejected any suggestion that the president’s harsh rhetoric contributed to the toxic moment.
And Sanders made clear Trump was unlikely to change course, saying the president will “continue to fight back” against critics.
Throughout his Republican campaign and presidency, Trump has been an unrelenting critic of the media. Last week, the New York offices of CNN, the cable network frequently criticized by Trump and his supporters, was evacuated after receiving an explosive device and an envelope containing white powder.
CNN President Jeff Zucker said another suspicious package addressed to CNN was intercepted Monday at an Atlanta post office.
With eight days to go before the midterm elections, Trump has continued to have his political rallies, complete with harsh criticism of Democrats and the media. He is planning an aggressive campaign schedule during the final days leading up to the Nov. 6 elections.
At a rally Saturday night, Trump was somewhat muted but still offered his standard campaign attack lines against critics including Democrat Hillary Clinton and Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, both of whom were targeted in the bomb plot. On Twitter on Sunday, he savaged billionaire businessman Tom Steyer, another target of the mail bombs, as a “crazed & stumbling lunatic.”