President Donald Trump on Friday resumed his attacks on journalists, calling one a “loser,” accusing another of asking a “stupid question” and defending a video shared by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that appeared to have been doctored to cast CNN reporter Jim Acosta in a negative light.
Sanders circulated the video Wednesday night after the White House announced it had revoked Acosta’s press credentials following a contentious press conference with the president.
“No one manipulated it, give me a break,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.
Sanders claimed the video proves Acosta became aggressive with a White House intern attempting to take a microphone from him. In a tweet, she said the Trump administration will “never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern.”
But multiple outlets consulted experts who found the video Sanders shared was likely sped up. The effect makes Acosta’s hand movement appear more forceful than it actually was.
“That is just dishonest reporting,” Trump said of the suggestion the video had been altered. He added that Acosta may not have been “overly horrible” to the intern, but he was “not nice.”
The president threatened to revoke other reporters’ credentials, as well, if the press does not show more “respect.”
Trump, who called Acosta a “rude, terrible person” at the Wednesday press conference, bashed the CNN star once again on Friday on the White House lawn before adding journalist April Ryan to the mix. Trump called Ryan, a National Urban Radio Network correspondent, a “loser” who “doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing.”
Trump accused her of stirring up “publicity” in order to “get a pay raise.” On Wednesday, he forcefully ordered her to sit down after she stood to ask a question.
“It’s such a hostile media,” Trump said at the time, telling Ryan she “rudely” interrupted a writer for the Daily Caller, a right-wing fringe website.
Trump also lashed out at CNN’s Abby Phillip for asking whether his new acting attorney general, Matthew Whittaker, would “rein in” the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
“What a stupid question that is,” the president said. “What a stupid question.”
He added: “But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions,” then turned and walked away.