Trump suggests Senate panel investigate media companies

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the Senate Intelligence Committee investigate media companies that he believes are reporting information that is “just made up.”

“Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!” the president tweeted early Thursday.

The president’s tweet came one day after leaders of the committee announced that their findings confirm the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and warned that Russian operatives may try to continue to interfere in future elections, including the midterms next year.

The committee leaders — Sens. Richard Burr, RN.C., and Mark Warner, D-Va. — also said they have reached no conclusion on whether Trump’s campaign was colluding with the Russians. That investigation will continue.

This week Trump is incensed that NBC News reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this summer because he had grown frustrated with policy disputes, clashes with the White House and a politicized speech Trump gave to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization Tillerson once led. The most buzzy point in the article: After a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon, Tillerson openly disparaged the president and called him a “moron.” NBC News credits this info to “three officials familiar with the incident.”

On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted: “Rex Tillerson never threatened to resign. This is Fake News put out by @NBCNews. Low news and reporting standards. No verification from me.”