President Donald Trump made waves yet again on his trip across the pond at a joint press conference between Trump and Britain's Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May.
After refusing a question from CNN's Jim Acosta—familiarly dismissing the network as fake news—Trump deferred instead to John Roberts of Fox News, saying:
"CNN is fake news. I don't take questions from CNN.John Roberts from Fox. Let's go to a real network."
It wasn't long before people on Twitter began calling out Roberts for not standing up for CNN:
In response, John Roberts took to his air to clear things up and defend his former employer.
I also used to work at CNN. There are some fine journalists who work there and risk their lives to report on stories around the world. To issue a blanket condemnation of the network as ‘fake news’ is also unfair.
But some damage had already been done.
Tapper is referring to an Obama-era incident in which he challenged the administration after they determined Fox News was "not a real news organization." Tapper defended Fox against then-White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:
I’m not talking about their opinion programming or issues you have with certain reports. I’m talking about saying thousands of individuals who work for a media organization, do not work for a “news organization” -- why is that appropriate for the White House to say?
CNN wasn't the only network the president vilified during the press conference.
Trump repeatedly demeaned the United States press and occasionally the United Kingdom's press as well.
When an NBC reporter asked if Trump's alienation of NATO allies and of PM Theresa May were giving Putin "the upper hand," Trump responded harshly:
"That’s such dishonest reporting. Of course it happens to be NBC, which is possibly worse than CNN."
Trump also launched into a xenophobic diatribe, insisting that immigration was "bad for the country" and "changing the culture" of the United Kingdom."
Many viewers believed Trump's behavior throughout the press conference to be antagonistic and even moronic. They shared their thoughts of his performance on Twitter.
Trump will leave for Scotland after meeting with Queen Elizabeth. Then he heads to Finland for his much-anticipated one-on-one summit with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. With Friday's indictments of twelve Russian hackers shedding more light on Russia's attempts to elect Trump, it's sure to be an interesting interaction.
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