President Donald Trump stunned onlookers Friday by hurling “treason” allegations at reporters during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One.
The president spoke with reporters after departing from a two-day summit in China, and Trump lashed out after New York Times reporter David Sanger asked him about his war with Iran.
“I had a total military victory,” Trump insisted. “But the fake news guys like you, write incorrectly. You’re a fake guy. Guys like you write about it incorrectly. We had a total military victory. We knocked out their entire navy, we knocked out their entire air force, we knocked out all of their anti-aircraft weaponry, we knocked out all of their radar, we knocked out all of their leaders, number one, and then we knocked out all of their leaders in the second division, and we knocked out numerous of their leaders in the third division, and they’re very confused.
“We’ve had a total victory except for people like you that don’t write the truth, you know?” Trump added. “I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write. You and the New York Times, and CNN, I would say, are the worst. You should know better, you know better, you’re a professional. Your editors tell you what to write, and you write it. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Sanger chuckled to himself as the president accused him of a grave capital offense, but not everyone found the president’s comments light-hearted.
“We’ve become numb to this stuff, but a president accusing a journalist of treason — a capital crime — for reporting on an ongoing war is not normal, and we should never accept it as normal,” opined journalist Radley Balko.
“A sitting president accusing a journalism of treason — to his face. This is not normal, nor should it ever be treated a such,” agreed Tim Lambert, editor-in-chief of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
“Just watch how [Sanger] and the rest act like they’re interviewing George HW Bush about the earned income tax credit,” observed journalist Dan Mitchell. “Not one of them says anything about the fact that Trump just accused one of them of treason. A crime you can be hanged for. Burn it all down. The media as we once knew it is never coming back. It needs to be replaced.”
“He’s the biggest crybaby in all of human history,” sighed former Republican congressman Joe Walsh.
“Deranged dictator trapped in a war of his own choosing yells ‘Off with his head!’ when someone asks him about it,” snarled veteran newsman Mark Jacob.
“One of the apparent consequences of pervasive BSing is that words start to lose meaning. They stop carrying weight,” remarked Cornell psychology professor Gordon Pennycook. “The President accusing a journalist of treason – a capital offense – provokes no reaction whatsoever.”
“What’s really gross to me is how Sanger laughs at this. They’re all just having fun,” lamented blogger Oliver Willis.
“The sort of rant you go on when you’ve definitely won a ‘total military victory,’” pointed out Just Security editor Brian Finucane.
“He also says NYT’s subscribers are ‘way down’ which is complete horses–t and a very easy thing to contradict him on,” noted journalist Bill Grueskin.
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