President Donald Trump renewed his attack on the media Wednesday, suggesting that Congress should “change libel laws.”
“Isn’t it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact,” the president tweeted Wednesday, “and get away with it without retribution or cost.”
He added, “Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws.”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037302649199177728
Trump’s latest assault on the media comes one day after the release of excerpts from Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” which featured explosive comments from top administration officials like White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis that were critical of the president.
Both Kelly and Mattis released statements disputing quotes attributed to them in the book, and the White House itself issued a statement dismissing “Fear” as “nothing more than fabricated stories, many by disgruntled former employees, told to make the President look bad.”
On Tuesday, Trump devoted no less than seven tweets to attacking Woodward’s book, which he said was “already discredited.” He also called Woodward, a veteran Pulitzer-winning journalist who has covered every presidency since Richard Nixon’s, a “Dem operative” — without any substantiation of the accusation.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037117638101688320
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037173907625832448
Woodward’s longtime employer, The Washington Post, on Tuesday published an article with highlights from the upcoming book, including his description of “an administrative coup d’etat” and a “nervous breakdown” of the executive branch.
Woodward, who based his book on hundreds of hours of interviews, meeting notes and documents, also wrote how senior aides conspired to “pluck official papers from the president’s desk so he couldn’t see or sign them.”