‘I’m President and They’re Not’: Trump Attacks Media at Faith Rally
President Trump used the first part of his holiday weekend getaway to issue more denunciations of the news media, using a celebration of American veterans and freedom at an evening rally to thunder that he would not allow the “fake” media to stop his agenda.
Speaking to raucous supporters at a faith rally at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington Saturday night, Mr. Trump brought the crowd to its feet by condemning news organizations.
“The fake media is trying to silence us,” Mr. Trump told the crowd at the concert hall, after returning to Washington briefly from his weekend getaway at his golf club in New Jersey. “But we will not let them. Because the people know the truth. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president and they’re not.”
On Sunday, Mr. Trump continued his attacks on the media. He posted on Twitter an old video clip of him at a World Wrestling Entertainment event in which he appears to be pummeling his opponent, who has the CNN logo superimposed on his head. Leaving his opponent on the ground in the video, Mr. Trump walks away.
CNN, in response, posted a statement that said in part, “It is a sad day when the president of the United States encourages violence against reporters.”
In his Saturday night speech, Mr. Trump praised American veterans and promised to defend religious liberty in America. Earlier in the day, the president also posted on Twitter about the fake media and accused secretaries of state from around the country of trying to hide something from a panel investigating widespread voter fraud that experts say never happened.
In a Twitter message on Saturday morning, Mr. Trump said that “numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?”
Mr. Trump set up the Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Integrity to find evidence for his debunked claim that millions of votes were cast illegally in the 2016 presidential election. On Wednesday, the group sent a letter to all 50 secretaries of state asking for personal data about the nation’s 200 million voters.
The response from many of the state voting officials was a resounding “no.” In Mississippi, the secretary of state, Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said: “My reply would be: They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Mr. Trump’s tweet suggests that he is not happy with those responses, but it is unclear what he can do about them. The commission chairman told news organizations on Friday that it was up to each state to decide what information to share with the panel.
The president started his Saturday tweet storm on a positive note, offering a “Happy Canada Day” to the people of that country and to his “new found friend” Justin Trudeau, the prime minister.
Source:- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/us/politics/trump-tweets-stoke-voter-fraud-claim-and-attack-news-media.html
