Donald Trump lashed out at a CNN reporter during a press conference at the White House, telling those in attendance she is “one of the worst reporters that you’ll ever see.”
Despite struggling to stay awake throughout the course of his ‘Antifa Roundtable,’ a visibly sleepy Trump found time to make crass remarks to a fan girl reporter, brag about ending free speech, and fail to understand what (or who) the Haebus Corpus is.
CNN White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes attempted to ask the president about the upcoming ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
While Trump has been quick to attach himself to the peace plan, it is unclear what role he has played, prompting Holmes to ask him, “Are you personally participating?”
Holmes’ question was difficult to hear over the chatter, but Trump had no interest in answering either way. “This is CNN speaking, by the way,” he told the room. “So, you know, this is one of the worst reporters that you’ll ever see. I don’t even want to take her question. It’s a waste of time.”
Trump swiftly moved on to the next reporter and said he might try to visit the Middle East at some point before the end of the week to attempt to secure the ceasefire deal’s approval.
“Nothing like that’s happened before,” he said. “And our final negotiation, as you know, is with Hamas. And it seems to be going well, so we’ll let you know if that’s the case.”
Trump also took shots at MSNBC, telling the room, “MSNBC is dying and CNN is dying like a dog.”
“Poor CNN, it’s so pathetic,” he added.
“Did you see their anchors in the evening? Nobody ever heard of them. Where does the people come? I could take anybody off the street in Washington, D.C., they’d do a better job.”
Other highlights of the nearly two-hour press conference, in which both Trump and his panelists stoked anti-media outrage over their coverage of protests, saw the president ask his mostly hand-picked crowd of sycophantic reporters, “What network would you say is the worst?”
FBI Director Kash Patel also praised Trump’s media mouthpieces for “reporting the stories live because the mainstream media won’t cover it.”
“They’re putting their lives on the line, they’re standing up for the flag, the least we can do is stand up for them, so you have my thanks. I read more of your stories than I do theirs,” the FBI director told those in attendance.
Trump’s assembled press pack also joined in on the self-congratulatory chorus. Conservative activist Nick Sortor called the mainstream journalists in attendance “garbage,” and MAGA influencer Nick Shirley complained about legacy news outlets’ refusal to invite him onto their shows.
The president signed off the conference with a final dig at reporters, telling the assembly “I think you could stay a little longer, but, you know, the problem is, although you have some very honest journalists in here, you also have some mostly largely dishonest journalists, like MS-DNC and CNN—I think they’re very dishonest, unbelievably, like a waste of time even talking to them.
“But I have to go now to try and solve some problems in the Middle East,” he added.
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