CNN media critic Brian Stelter was left "speechless" on Sunday while covering Donald Trump's Twitter assault on the cast of the play "Hamilton."
While attending the Broadway play over the weekend, Trump became angry when a cast member told Vice President-elect Mike Pence that people were "anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights."
Trump later blasted the cast in a tweet, saying, "The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior."
Stelter read the tweet aloud during his Sunday morning Reliable Sources program and then paused with his mouth wide open, causing several seconds of dead air.
"I'm speechless," he said in a hushed voice.
Stelter wondered if Trump would continue to attack the media as a way to distract from his disastrous White House transition and his various conflicts of interest.
New York Times columnist Charles Blow explained that Trump focuses his attacks on The New York Times, Saturday Night Live and Broadway plays because his worldview is centered on New York City.
"It's almost if he has not moved completely into the realm of being president of the entire United States," Blow noted. "He's still obsessed about New York City. And that includes New York City media."
