For the first time since July last year, President-elect Donald Trump held a conference for news organizations. During the event, he singled out CNN and BuzzFeed for their constant attacks on his campaign and presidency and for producing fake news reports.
The press conference centered on various matters including Russia’s alleged link to the U.S. elections and Trump’s incoming cabinet members. Although other media outlets such as Fox News, ABC and Breitbart were given the opportunity to ask questions at the event, Trump took advantage of the conference to slam CNN and BuzzFeed for their unsubstantiated reports.
Trump’s ire towards these two outlets stems from the recent report published by BuzzFeed, which claims that Russia has compromising information about the incoming president. As for CNN, the news outlet immediately latched on to the story and released an article about it earlier this week.
During the press conference, Trump warned BuzzFeed of the repercussions for releasing the article.
“BuzzFeed which is a failing pile of garbage… will suffer the consequence,” Trump said.
Trump then turned his sights on CNN after its reporter Jim Acosta called his attention for a question.
“Since you are attacking us, can you give us a question?” Acosta asked.
“Not you,” Trump responded. “Your organization is terrible!”
Despite Trump’s straightforward response, Acosta still continued to press the president-elect about asking a question at the conference. This prompted Trump to publicly label CNN as a producer of Fake News.
“I’m not going to give you a question,” he said. “Don’t be rude. I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news!”
Aside from Trump’s combative banter with BuzzFeed and CNN, other key moments from the press conference include his admission that Russia may have been behind the efforts to hack the presidential campaign.
In addition, he noted that lawmakers from the Republican Party are preparing to enact their plans to successfully repeal and replace Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Trump also promised that his administration will enforce a fair bidding system within the pharmaceutical industry in order to establish the best prices for medicinal drugs.
