Trump lays into press at Pennsylvania rally
WILKESBARRE: Thundering that the media are the ‘‘fake, fake disgusting news’’, US President Donald Trump has unleashed a torrent of grievances at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in which he casts journalists as his true political opponent.
Trump barnstormed in a state that he swiped from the Democrats in 2016 and that is home to a Senate seat he is trying to win for Republicans this autumn.
But the race between GOP US Representative Lou Barletta and twoterm incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey took a back seat yesterday to Trump’s invectives against the media, which came amid a backdrop of antagonism to journalists from the White House and hostility from the thousands packed into a loud, overheated WilkesBarre arena.
‘‘Whatever happened to the free press? Whatever happened to honest reporting?’’ Trump asked, pointing to the media in the hall. ‘‘They don’t report it. They only make up stories.’’
Time and time again, Trump denounced the press for underselling his accomplishments and doubting his political rise.
He tore into the media for diminishing what he accomplished at his Singapore summit with North Korea leader Kim Jungun. He tore into the tough questioning he received in Helsinki when he met Russia’s Vladimir Putin last month. And he began the speech with a 10minute remembrance of his 2016 electionnight victory, bemoaning that Pennsylvania was not the state to clinch the White House for him only because ‘‘the fake news refused to call it’’.
With each denunciation, the crowd jeered and screamed at the press in the holding pen at the back of the arena.
The inflammatory performance came just hours after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to distance herself from Trump’s previous assertions that the media are the ‘‘enemy’’ of the American people.
In a heated exchange with reporters, she recited a litany of complaints against the press and blamed the media for inflaming tensions in the country.
‘‘As far as I know, I’m the first press secretary in the history of the United States that’s required Secret Service protection,’’ she said, accusing the media of continuing ‘‘to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration.’’ —AP