Trump Attacks NBC and MSNBC In Front Of The Entire World

When NBC and MSNBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump if his criticism of Theresa May was giving Putin the upper hand, Trump responded by attacking NBC for “dishonest reporting.”

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Kristen Welker: Mr. President. Thank you very much. Spent the week taking on Nato allies, criticizing prime minister may on her own soil, and are you giving Russian president Vladimir Putin the upper hand heading into your talks, giving these alliances he seeks to destroy?

Trump: That’s such dishonesty reporting. Of course, that happens to be NBC which is possibly worse than CNN — Let me explain something. We have left nato with more money, with more unity, with more spirit, than nato probably has ever had. We have a strong and powerful nato. We had people that weren’t paying their bills. They weren’t following their commitments. In addition to that, we’ve become an oil exporter which would not have happened under the past regime. We have built up our military. Several hundred billion dollars. Then $716 billion. When you look at what we’ve done in terms of Russia, I guarantee whoever it is in Russia, they’re saying, oh, gee, do we wish that Trump was not the victor in that election.

Let’s begin with the obvious. According to numerous intelligence reports and a recent bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, Russia was working to get Donald Trump elected, so Putin definitely wanted him to win.

Trump also managed to repeat his net oil exporter lie. Obama presided over a great expansion of oil and natural gas production. PolitiFact already checked Trump’s statement about crude oil exports and determined that it was false.

Trump used an international press conference to attack NBC and MSNBC

The President Of The United States met with an ally and used the press conference to attack NBC. MSNBC uses to NBC News staff and resources for their reporting, so when Trump attacked NBC News, he was also attacking MSNBC. Trump didn’t use the question to answer concerns that the American people have about his close ties with Russia. The President used his platform to discredit his critics while lying about Russian motivations and his accomplishments.

Trump went overseas and attacked an outlet that has been objectively reporting on him.

This is not democracy, and Trump’s assault on one of the major institutions intended to hold him accountable can’t go unrecognized.

If Trump is mad at NBC News, it only means that they are doing their jobs correctly.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association