Trump Excoriates Anonymous News Sources: 'It's Bulls***'
President Donald Trump attacked the news media Friday for its habit of using unnamed sources in stories that attack his administration.
Trump’s jab at the media practice of not identifying where information comes from occurred during remarks he made Friday to a conference of the National Association of Realtors being held in Washington, D.C. During his free-flowing speech, the president pushed back against media accounts that have claimed there is dissension within the administration over U.S. policy toward Iran, according to a White House media pool report.
“And, you know, we’re right now dealing with Iran. And they put out so many false messages that Iran is totally confused. I don’t know, that might be a good thing. No, they put out — the Fake News — they put out messages — these people right back here,” Trump said.
“They put out messages that I’m angry with my people. I’m not angry with them. I make my own decisions. But I’m ‘angry with my people.’ I’m ‘not angry with my people.’ I’m worse than they are; they’re worse than we are. They’re more militant,” Trump said, referencing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Even though members of the media are getting it wrong, the confusion sowed may be useful, Trump said.
“But they make it sound like it’s a conflict. And the good news — I was thinking today, I said, ‘Gee, what must our adversaries think? And then I look and I say, ‘You know, it’s probably a good thing because they’re saying, ‘Man, I don’t know where these people are coming from.’ Right?” Trump said.
“But they put out false — you know, they say, ‘confidential sources.’ Do you ever notice they never write the names of people anymore. Everything is ‘a source says…’ There is no source. The person doesn’t exist. The person is not alive. It’s bulls—. Okay? It’s bulls—,” Trump said.
Trump then cited examples of misleading attribution.
“‘Three people who were at that meeting’ — you know, a meeting of like seven — ‘three people have confirmed that this happened and that happened.’ There were no three people. They make it up,” Trump said.
“These are bad people. These are people — that’s why I came up with the term ‘fake news.’ It’s a good term. I’ve had better, but that’s a good term. ‘Fake news.’ It’s a hoax,” he said.
The media were not the only group given the “bad people” label. Earlier in the speech Trump said that his success “happened because we are taking out this power out of Washington — these bad people — and returning it to the American people, where it belongs. Just think about Comey and these characters. Think about Comey and the gang. Drain the swamp. Drain the swamp,” citing former FBI Director James Comey.
He later also mentioned former Director of Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan.
“Comey, Brennan, Clapper — we’re draining the swamp, folks. And you think it’s easy? It’s not easy. It’s not easy, but we’re doing it. We’re getting rid of a lot bad ones,” he said.
During the speech, Trump also riffed on Democrats who are seeking to be president in 2020.
“They have 25 people now running for the Office of President. And some of these people are stone-cold crazy,” he said. “I mean, they’re promoting the biggest socialist takeover in the history, really, of the world. Because, if you think — I mean, this is the United States. And they have a hundred-trillion-dollar Green New Deal. Nobody has any idea what the hell it is.”
Trump then mocked Democrats’ policy proposals.
“They know that you can’t take a plane anymore; you have to take a train to Hawaii,” he said, referencing the Green New Deal.
“Hey, if they can’t build from San Francisco to Los Angeles, what’s going to happen when they say, ‘Let’s build a train to Europe?’ Let’s build one up to Europe. We’ll do a fast train.’ A hundred miles an hour. Let’s see. Well, a plane goes six [hundred], so you got a long trip on a train, I’ll tell you,” Trump said.
“This is crazy. This is crazy. But I don’t want to hit it too hard. I want to save it for the election, because I don’t want them to change. You know? I don’t want them to change.
“I don’t want them to have time to pivot. I want them to go with this stuff,” he said.
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