CNN accused President Trump
Donald TrumpOmar, Muslim Democrats decry Islamophobia amid death threats On The Money — Powell pivots as inflation rises Trump cheers CNN's Cuomo suspension MORE on Monday of being an online bully after the president tweeted an attack against anchor Don Lemon, calling him the “dumbest man on television.”
“In a world where bullies torment kids on social media to devastating effect on a regular basis with insults and name-calling, it is sad to see our president engaging in the very same behavior himself,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “Leaders should lead by example.”
Trump has been fuming at the media in the wake of several high-profile retractions and an unflattering profile in The New York Times that ran over the weekend, which claimed that the president watches hours of cable news coverage about himself every day.
In a Monday morning tweet, Trump disputed the Times's report and lashed out at Lemon, a frequent critic of the president.
Another false story, this time in the Failing @nytimes, that I watch 4-8 hours of television a day - Wrong! Also, I seldom, if ever, watch CNN or MSNBC, both of which I consider Fake News. I never watch Don Lemon, who I once called the “dumbest man on television!” Bad Reporting.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2017
CNN has been aggressive in its criticism of Trump, and many conservatives complain that the anchors and panelists on the network have abandoned any effort to be fair to the administration and instead have taken up an effort to damage him politically.
That includes a high-profile “Facts First” ad campaign the network is running that mockingly digs at the Trump administration as untruthful and delusional.
Meanwhile, Trump and his allies have ramped up their attacks against the media in recent days amid a string of embarrassing retractions and corrections at prominent news outlets.
On Friday, CNN reported that Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., had received access to hacked Democratic emails from WikiLeaks more than a week before they were leaked to the public — an allegation that NBC and CBS claimed to confirm and that was presented as direct evidence of collusion with Russians during the campaign.
CNN later corrected its story to say that someone who was not affiliated with WikiLeaks had emailed Trump Jr. to notify him that WikiLeaks had already published the hacked emails online.
That came after ABC suspended one of its top reporters for wrongly reporting that the president had directed former national security adviser Michael Flynn to make contact with Russian officials during the campaign.
Very little discussion of all the purposely false and defamatory stories put out this week by the Fake News Media. They are out of control - correct reporting means nothing to them. Major lies written, then forced to be withdrawn after they are exposed...a stain on America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2017
Over the weekend, the president also demanded that a Washington Post reporter be fired for misrepresenting the size of the crowd that had gathered to see his rally in Pensacola, Fla.
.@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
