White House under fire over attack on media
Print Edition
DONALD Trump’s White House came under fire yesterday for falsely accusing the media of misreporting inaugural crowd numbers.
The brash billionaire and his chief spokesman launched a startling assault on the US media on Saturday, Trump’s first full day in office, accusing reporters of downplaying the turnout at his swearing-in ceremony.
Trump and his chief spokesman lambasted the media for the reporting of the inauguration turnout in what analysts said was an attempt to divert attention from mass protests across the US on the same day.
Visiting Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Virginia, Trump insisted, despite evidence to the contrary, that he drew 1.5 million people to his swearing-in ceremony.
“I made a speech. I looked out, the field was, it looked like a million, million and a half people,” he told CIA staff.
“They showed a field where there were practically nobody standing there. And they said, Donald Trump did not draw well,” he added.
The comments drew criticism from outgoing CIA Director John Brennan, according to a New York Times report.
The Times quoted Nick Shapiro, who served as Brennan’s chief of staff, as saying Brennan “is deeply saddened and angered at Donald Trump’s despicable display of self-aggrandizement in front of the CIA’s Memorial Wall of agency heroes.
“Brennan says that Trump should be ashamed of himself,” Shapiro added.
Trump’s attack came as he made a fence-mending mission after his public rejection of the assessment by US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled to try to help him win the November election.
Trump, standing in front of the wall with stars honoring employees killed while serving the country — proclaimed he was fully behind the spy agency.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer doubled down on the media assault, using his first press conference in the White House briefing room to blast the journalists seated before him for “deliberately false reporting” on crowd size.
“This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period!” Spicer said. “These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong.”
Spicer left the briefing without taking questions.
He appeared eager to lay down the new law with the press, whom Trump criticized repeatedly on the campaign trail, even branding mainstream media outlets as “fake news.”
The intensity of Spicer’s delivery suggested he and Trump were furious at coverage of the inauguration, which many outlets said fell well short of Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural in terms of crowd size.
A comparison of aerial photos taken on January 20, 2009 and last Friday appeared to bear that out.
Washington city authorities do not provide official crowd counts but TV footage clearly showed the gathering did not stretch all the way to the Washington Monument, as Trump had asserted.
An estimated 1.8 million people flooded the National Mall area in 2009 when Obama was sworn in as US president.
Washington authorities reportedly predicted 800,000 to 900,000 would attend Trump’s inauguration, about half the 2009 crowd.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus intensified the Trump administration’s criticism of the news media yesterday, accusing it of trying to delegitimize Trump’s presidency and vowing to fight such coverage “tooth and nail.”
“The media from day one has been talking about delegitimizing the election,” Priebus told “Fox News Sunday.” He accused the media of attacks on Trump, saying “we’re not going to sit around and take it.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
