Even though president Trump is now resident in the White House, the press is on a mission to “delegitimize” him.
But, Trump and his administration isn’t letting the media get away with it.
On Saturday, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary called in the press for a statement, where he scolded them for false reports regarding the number of attendees to the inauguration.
“Yesterday at the time the nation and world was watching the peaceful transition of power, and as the president said the transition and the balance of power from Washington citizen of the United States, some members of the media were engaged in deliberately false reporting,” said Spicer. “These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong.”
Spicer also called out the incorrect report by Time Magazine by Zeke Miller where he claimed the bust of MLK Jr. was removed from the Oval Office.
“This kind of dishonesty in the media, the challenging that bringing about our nation together is making it more difficult,” said Spicer on Saturday. “There’s been a lot of talk in the media about the responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable. I’m here to tell you that it goes two ways. We’re going to hold the press accountable as well.”
The Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus chimed in following Spicer’s comments and said it wasn’t really about the false stories themselves, but more about the fact that the press constantly tries to diminish the new president.
“The point is not the crowd size. The point is the attacks and the attempts to delegitimize this president in one day,” said Priebus on Fox News Sunday. “And we’re not going to sit around and take it. We are going to fight back tooth and nail every day.”
Priebus also addressed the media’s false claims about the beef between Trump and the CIA. Trump visited the CIA headquarters over the weekend and attended a meeting with 300+ staffers.
“I’m telling you; It was a love fest in there,” said Priebus.
Trump also addressed how the press is trying to create a fake narrative about his relationship with the CIA at the meeting.
“I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on Earth,” said Trump at the meeting in Langley, VA. “They sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community. I just want to let you know that the reason you’re the number one stop is exactly the opposite.”
He also told the CIA community that much more than 250,000 people attended the inauguration and that he would never take away the Dr. Martin Luther King statue since he has great respect for him.
Another soldier against the press has been Trump’s senior advisor Kellyanne Conway who was on NBC News defending the administration from the recent claims from the press.
“Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd called Spicer’s comments false and that it “undermines the credibility of the entire White House press office on day one.”
He also said Spicer’s statements about the inauguration numbers were a “ridiculous litigation of crowd size.”
“Sean Spicer gave alternative facts to that,” said Conway.
Todd kept aggressively pressing her and kept calling Spicer’s comments absurd.
“Chuck, your job is not [to] call things ridiculous,” said Conway. “You’re a news person, not an opinion columnist… Think about what you just said to your viewers, that’s why we feel compelled to go out and clear the air.”
Todd often disrespectfully laughed in his responses to her.
“The way you laughed at me is representative of the way we’re represented by the press,” said Conway. “We were mocked talking about the historic crowds for our campaigns. He brought in historic crowds and on great days we were ignored, and on most days we were mocked. Those crowds mattered, he built a movement. “
Author’s note: The press seems to have an unfair animosity for Trump and is willing to report lies just to diminish him. Unfortunately for them, Trump’s team isn’t afraid to expose the media when they report lies or only partial facts.