Jordan Fabian

President Trump calls CNN's Acosta 'bad for the country'

President Donald Trump expressed hope the White House would defeat CNN in a lawsuit over his decision to suspend the press credentials of reporter Jim Acosta, whom he called “bad for the country." President Trump railed against Acosta, calling him a “rude” person whose “grandstanding” is unfair to the broader White House press corps. “I really think that when you have guys like Acosta, I think they’re bad for the country,” President Trump said.

President Trump calls April Ryan a 'loser,' threatens to revoke more press credentials

President Donald Trump suggested he could pull press credentials from other reporters who don't show him "respect." The comments come two days after the president suspended the press pass of CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta after a contentious exchange during a news conference. "I think Jim Acosta is a very unprofessional man," President Trump said. Asked how long Acosta's credentials will be suspended, the president replied: "As far as I'm concerned, I haven't made that decision.

President Trump hits the media in speech to troops

President Donald Trump criticized the news media during a speech to members of the military.  The president, speaking at upstate New York's Fort Drum, claimed 4 million new jobs have been created since his election in November 2016, a number he said, "the media in the back never said would be possible." After President Trump's comment was met with cheers and applause from soldiers in the room, he launched into an aside about the media.  "I'm so proud of myself. I didn't call them the 'fake news media,' " President Trump continued.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Won't Condemn Harassment of CNN Reporter During Trump Rally

The White House did not condemn a group of people who heckled a CNN reporter at President Trump's rally in Tampa (FL). "While we support freedom of the press, we also support freedom of speech. Those things go hand in hand," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said when asked whether President Trump supports that behavior. She criticized the media for reporting on classified information, but in doing so cited an example that has been widely debunked. 

President Trump: Journalists should be free from fear of violent attacks

President Donald Trump lamented the “horrible” shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis (MD) saying journalists should not face grave danger in the United States. “This attack shocked the conscience of our nation and filled our hearts with grief,” President Trump said.

President Trump blames 'fake news' media for aiding smugglers, human traffickers

President Donald Trump blamed yet another entity for the growing immigration crisis on the US southern border: the news media. President Trump said the “fake news” reports about children being separated from their families at the border are aiding human traffickers. "They are helping these smugglers and these traffickers like nobody would believe," President Trump said of the media.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says White House 'committed to a free press'

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration is “committed to a free press” after the president threatened to strip reporters of their credentials. Sanders said during her daily press briefing that “this is one of the most accessible White Houses,” a sentiment she insisted reporters share. “We are committed to a free press. We demonstrate that every single day,” she said. But Sanders chastised news organizations for what she said were false reports. “At the same time, the press has the responsibility to put out accurate information.”

WH press sec, reporters spar over 'fake news'

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparred with reporters during her Dec 11 briefing over errors made by media outlets in reports on President Donald Trump. Sanders disputed the notion that mistakes made by news outlets were “honest mistakes” during a heated exchange with CNN’s Jim Acosta.  "You cannot say it's an honest mistake when you're purposely putting out information you know is false," Sanders said. Sanders and Acosta talked over one another during the exchange. “I’m not finished,” she responded when reporter Brian Karem tried to cut in.

DOJ, AT&T trade accusations over CNN sale

The Department of Justice and AT&T traded accusations Nov 8 over whether the company would have to sell off CNN, the cable network frequently feuding with President Trump, as a condition of its merger with Time Warner.  AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson flatly denied that his company had ever entertained the idea of selling CNN to win approval of the deal. “Until now, we’ve never commented on our discussions with the DOJ. But given DOJ’s statement this afternoon, it’s important to set the record straight,” said Stephenson.

White House circulates negative stories about Comey after firing

The White House circulated negative press clippings on FBI Director James Comey minutes after announcing his firing May 9. The one-page sheet circulated by the White House contained four stories, most of them about Democrats criticizing Comey's decision to disclose developments in the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server. One of the clips was a Wall Street Journal editorial calling for Comey’s resignation because “he has lost the trust of nearly everyone in Washington, along with every American who believes the FBI must maintain its reputation as a politically impartial federal agency.”

President Trump attacks NY Times in tweet

President Donald Trump attacked The New York Times, days after he called one of the paper’s reporters to give an exclusive interview on the decision to pull his healthcare plan from the House floor. “The failing @NYTimes would do much better if they were honest!” President Trump tweeted on both his personal and official White House accounts.

The tweet linked to a piece by New York Post columnist John Crudele, in which he said he canceled his Times subscription “because I felt the paper had become ethically challenged in its coverage of the presidential election.” Crudele ripped the paper’s coverage of the federal investigation into whether Trump associates helped Russia meddle in the 2016 election and Trump’s wiretapping claims.

White House: No comparison between Pence, Clinton e-mail

The White House said it’s unfair to compare Vice President Pence’s use of a private e-mail address to conduct state business as Indiana governor to Hillary Clinton’s home e-mail server setup. “It was an apples to oranges comparison,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. "He was a governor, not a federal employee, which means the laws are different,” she continued. “He did everything to the letter of the law in Indiana, turned all his emails over unlike Hillary Clinton, at least 30,000 on her private server and classified information was found.”

There are numerous differences between the two situations. Indiana law does not bar public officials from using private email accounts, but they are expected to retain those communications for public records requests. Federal employees, on the other hand, are strongly discouraged from using personal accounts for work purposes. Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said he directed his lawyers “to review all of his communications to ensure that state-related emails are being transferred and properly archived by the state, in accordance with the law.” Clinton deleted almost half of her private email archive, claiming they were personal in nature. But an FBI investigation later turned up thousands of work-related emails that were not turned over to the State Department.

White House dismisses CNN report on FBI as ‘indefensible’

President Donald Trump’s top spokesman dismissed a news report alleging the FBI rejected a request by the White House to publicly knock down reports about communications between Trump associates and the Russians. “What you guys have done is indefensible and inaccurate,” he told reporters.

Senior administration officials accused CNN, which broke the story, of mischaracterizing the White House’s request to the FBI — though they did not dispute that a communication took place between the FBI and White House officials. CNN reported that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus reached out to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe asking them to talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories about communications between Trump associates and Russia, which ran in The New York Times and CNN. Comey reportedly rejected the request because the alleged communications are the subject of an investigation. The discussions between the FBI and the White House could run aground of longstanding rules restrictions of contact regarding pending investigations.

President Trump: Flynn treated badly by 'fake media'

President Trump said his ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn was treated "unfairly" by the "fake media." At a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump blamed Democrats and leaks by the intelligence community for Flynn's resignation over his conversations with Russia. Nov 15’s comments are Trump's first in-person reaction to Flynn's resignation. “I think he’s been treated very, very unfairly by the media — as I call it, the fake media, in many cases,” President Trump said. “I think it’s really a sad thing he was treated so badly.”

Trump scraps signing of cybersecurity executive action

President Donald Trump scrapped plans to sign an executive action launching a government-wide cybersecurity overhaul. The White House did not immediately provide an explanation for the cancellation. It was an abrupt about face after the White House spent all day Jan 31 plugging its plans to boost the nation's offensive and defensive cyber capabilities.

Officials told reporters earlier in the day that Trump planned to order Cabinet officials to enhance their agencies’ cyber defenses and commission an administration-wide review to assess hacking risks. Hours later, Trump convened a “listening session” with top White House, Cabinet and cybersecurity experts in the Roosevelt Room. “I will hold my Cabinet secretaries and agency heads accountable, totally accountable for the cybersecurity of their organizations which we probably don’t have as much, certainly not as much as we need,” he said. “We must protect federal networks and data.”

Trump keeping 50 Obama administration officials

President-elect Donald Trump has asked roughly 50 senior Obama Administration officials to remain in their roles in order to "ensure the continuity of government," spokesman Sean Spicer said. The decision comes as Trump is reportedly struggling to fill important posts in his new administration. Among the President Obama holdovers are key national security officials, including Brett McGurk, special envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The move is somewhat surprising, given President-elect Trump’s repeated criticism of President Obama’s effort to combat the terrorist group. He called the president "the founder of ISIS" during a campaign event last April.

Trump meeting with Univision executives after campaign clashes

President-elect Donald Trump is set to meet with two top executives from Univision after repeatedly clashing with the Spanish-language broadcaster during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump is set to meet at Trump Tower with network CEO Randy Falco and head of news Isaac Lee, according to transition spokesman Sean Spicer. The meeting is a chance for the two sides to mend fences after an acrimonious campaign season. The feud dates back to when Trump announced his candidacy in the summer of 2015, when he made disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants. When Univision anchor Jorge Ramos attempted to question Trump about his comments at an August 2015 news conference, the candidate ejected him, telling him to “go back to Univision.”

President Obama rails against fake news

President Barack Obama denounced the the spread of fake news online, suggesting it’s helped undermine the US political process. “If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not ... if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems," President Obama said during a news conference in Germany.

The president’s comments amplify reports that viral fake news influenced the 2016 presidential election, adding to pressure on social media sites like Facebook to address the criticism that they didn’t do enough to address the issue. President Obama argued that phenomenon can have an affect on voter attitudes toward candidates, particularly “in an age where there is so much active misinformation, and it’s packaged very well, and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or turn on your television.” “If everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won’t know what to protect,” President Obama said. “We won’t know what to fight for."

White House: President Obama gave 'entirely factual' answer about Clinton e-mail server

President Barack Obama gave an “entirely factual” response when asked in 2015 about how he discovered Hillary Clinton used a private e-mail server as Secretary of State, his top spokesman said. President Obama’s claim that he first learned about Clinton’s server “through news reports” was called into question again after an e-mail chain released Oct 25 by WikiLeaks showed a top Clinton aide expressing concern in March 2015 that the president might be accused of lying. "What the president said was an entirely factual response,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. "I recognize that some of the president’s critics have attempted to construct some type of conspiracy about the communication between the president and the secretary of state,” Earnest continued. “But they’ve failed to put forward a conspiracy that withstands any scrutiny, so I guess they are back to recycling thoroughly debunked conspiracies."

The White House has repeatedly insisted that President Obama did not have knowledge of Clinton’s unusual e-mail server, even though the two did communicate by e-mail during her time at the State Department. But Clinton’s allies privately expressed concern about President Obama’s claim during a March 2015 CBS News interview that he first learned through media reports that the secretary of State used an e-mail system “outside the U.S. government for official business,” as reporter Bill Plante described it while questioning the President. “[L]ooks like POTUS just said he found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it in the news,” Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin told other allies in a March 7, 2015, email published by WikiLeaks. “[W]e need to clean this up - he has emails from her - they do not say state.gov,” responded former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills. At a White House press briefing two days after the email exchange, Earnest said that Obama knew about Clinton’s email address because he sent messages to it. But he said the president was unaware of the exact nature of the server or the extent to which she used it.