President Donald Trump Slams CNN on Twitter Following Retracted Russia Story
U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to blast CNN, which he often labels as an aggregator of "fake news," following the resignation of three journalists over a story they did on the Russian investigation.
CNN is often at the receiving end of Trump's critical tweets especially as it reports on and follows the reported collusion of Russia in the recent presidential election.
Thomas Frank (the author of the story), Eric Lichtblau (assistant managing editor in CNN's Washington bureau) and Lex Haris (head of the investigations unit) resigned after retracting a story alleging an associate of Trump who convened with the chief executive of a Russian investment fund four days before Trump was inaugurated.
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The President wasted no time slamming CNN. He said in one tweet:
"Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!"
On his claim about the ratings, CNN responded with a correction, saying "CNN just posted [its] most-watched second quarter in history. Those are the facts." Trump also claimed in a follow-up tweet that CNN should face the consequences for all the other "phony" news that they come out with, ranting:
"Wow, CNN had to retract big story on 'Russia,' with 3 employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!"
He also said that other publications that do the same thing should be called out too.
Following the blunder, CNN has taken down all links to the story and apologized to Anthony Scaramucci, the Trump transition team member involved in the retracted story. He accepted the apology, saying that the network "did the right thing" and "was a classy move." "Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on," he went on to say. In his most recent tweets, the President also provided an update on his bid to improve health care by criticizing ObamaCare once again and lamenting the lack of Democrat support.
