Trump Threatens to Revoke NYT Press Credentials Again
Trump is throwing yet another tantrum at the New York Times, this time over a reported article published on Saturday that depicts the GOP presidential nominee as privately unhinged. As opposed to his more dynamic public persona, which is that of an unhinged, yet confident, individual.
The Times article draws on a series of interviews with “more than 20 Republicans who are close to Mr. Trump or in communication with his campaign,” some of them anonymous, to paint a picture of a man whose, “mood is often sullen and erratic.” So, different from what we were all expecting.
Trump got on Twitter Saturday to calmly address the article’s claims:
The failing @nytimes has become a newspaper of fiction. Their stories about me always quote non-existent unnamed sources. Very dishonest!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2016
And to do some fiction-reporting of his own:
If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
He worked hard at it, even tweeting into the next day, like those reporters in “Spotlight”:
It is not "freedom of the press" when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
Between the tweets, Journalism Student Trump got religious in Fairfield, Connecticut on Saturday night saying, “the newspaper [the Times] is going to hell,” and added, “Maybe we’ll start thinking about taking away their press credentials.”
Trump made the same threat on August 1 in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, where he said, “No matter how good I do on something, they’ll never write good.”
Trump has revoked the press credentials of nearly a dozen journalists and news outlets.
Trump’s running-mate Mike Pence said in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday that Trump’s media blacklist is a topic of discussion within the campaign. “I do believe in the public’s right to know,” Pence said.