Politics
AP Images / Alan Diaz
- President Donald Trump lashed out at CNN for its botched report over the Trump campaign's involvement with Wikileaks in the run-up to last year's election.
- In early morning tweets, Trump mocked CNN for the error, saying the network should change its slogan to "CNN, the Least Trusted Name in
News ." - CNN's error is the second major flop by a major news network in a week.
President Donald Trump suggested on Twitter early Saturday morning that CNN should fire those responsible for the network's botched report about hacked Wikileaks documents.
"Fake News CNN made a vicious and purposeful mistake yesterday," the president tweeted. "They were caught red handed, just like lonely Brian Ross at ABC News (who should be immediately fired for his "mistake"). Watch to see if @CNN fires those responsible, or was it just gross incompetence?"
Trump continued: "CNN'S slogan is CNN, THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS. Everyone knows this is not true, that this could, in fact, be a fraud on the American Public. There are many outlets that are far more trusted than Fake News CNN. Their slogan should be CNN, THE LEAST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS!"
On Friday, CNN published a story saying that on September 4, 2016, Trump - then the Republican presidential nominee - as well as his son and other Trump Organization staffers received an email offering a decryption key and web address for a cache of hacked documents that WikiLeaks possessed.
Later on Friday, CNN issued a correction noting that the Trump campaign actually received the Wikileaks email on September 14, one day after Wikileaks made the documents in question public.
"CNN's initial reporting of the date on an email sent to members of the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks documents, which was confirmed by two sources close to CNN, was incorrect," CNN said in a statement.
The network also said it would not pursue disciplinary action against Manu Raju, the congressional correspondent who reported on the story, because Raju had followed proper editorial guidelines and the story had been vetted before its publication.
Trump's attacks on CNN - a frequent target of his ire - for the error mark his latest attempt to capitalize on a major news network's reporting mishap. Last week, ABC News erroneously reported that Trump, as a candidate, directed former national security adviser Michael Flynn to make contact with the Russians. It turned out that Trump only did so after he had been elected. ABC News suspended Brian Ross, the correspondent who reported that story, for 4 weeks without pay.
During a rally in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday, Trump mocked the media for the recent mistakes.
"Did you see all the corrections the media's been making?" Trump asked the crowd. "They've been apologizing left and right. And then CNN apologized just a little while ago," Trump said. "Oh, thank you CNN, thank you so much! You should have been apologizing for the last two years!"
Fake News CNN made a vicious and purposeful mistake yesterday. They were caught red handed, just like lonely Brian Ross at ABC News (who should be immediately fired for his "mistake"). Watch to see if @CNN fires those responsible, or was it just gross incompetence?
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017CNN'S slogan is CNN, THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS. Everyone knows this is not true, that this could, in fact, be a fraud on the American Public. There are many outlets that are far more trusted than Fake News CNN. Their slogan should be CNN, THE LEAST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017