During a White House briefing, Sarah Huckabee Sanders got very testy during an exchange with CNN's Jim Acosta, who then told CNN viewers that Trump's intentional attacks on the free press as fake news are inappropriate and very dangerous.
Host Brooke Baldwin asked him, "What was that like?"
Acosta replied, "Well, it's another day at the White House."
He continued, "I think what came up during this briefing was a pretty clear example of what the White House wants to do when it comes to the free press in this country. Every time there is a mistake, an honest mistake, it seems that this White House, this president wants to weaponize it and use it as a way to go after news outlets in this country."
This is in line with what was written in Axios this weekend.
Mike Allen reported on Trump's tactics against the media. "He just hammers something into submission, whatever it may be. ... With the media, he just wears it down, wears it down, then somebody slips and makes a mistake."
Maybe Trump will call that fake news also.
The Trump administration is good at picking apart those who they feel their rivals are and the free press is their #1 enemy. As it is in every banana republic.
It's easy to pick out the mistakes in the media, even after they are immediately corrected to promote the idea that Trump is a victim of media bias. What Trump did to Dave Weigel is unforgivable as the president of the U.S.
Mistakes are not fake news.
But you will never hear the administration admit to promoting lies, ever.
Acosta made the same claims.
Acosta said, "We are journalists and we are human beings. We are going to make mistakes, but that doesn't mean that, you know, you throw people overboard every time a mistake is made with a news outlet."
"The problem that I had during this briefing is that you have the president of the United States referring to news outlets that make mistakes as 'fake news.' That's just totally inappropriate especially when you have a president in Donald Trump who frequently puts out false information intentionally to the American people whether it's online, on the internet, on social media or just speaking to us at news events," he said.
"And I think there are a number of reporters in this room who are trying to ask the question, what about the president when he puts out false information. Oftentimes, Brooke, that is intentional on his part," Acosta said.
When the press does get the chance to call out Trump's falsehoods during a White House briefing, Sarah Huckabee Sanders comes up with nonsensical defenses for his words.
She never says he was wrong.
Maybe they believe this president can never be charged or held accountable for making false statements to the press and to the American people either because, he's the president?
