Donald Trump chided Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo as “fake news” over her repeated questions about John McCain and why the president continued to attack the late senator.
“I didn’t mention John McCain until you asked me a question about John McCain,” a visibly annoyed Trump said in an interview broadcast on Friday. “I could say I have no comment but that’s not me. But you shouldn’t have brought it up. Actually, I thought you weren’t suppose to bring it up but that’s OK. Fake news, every once and a while.”
“It’s not fake news,” Bartiromo pushed back. “You just told me why you have an issue with him. It’s real news.”
It’s unclear what Trump meant when he said, “You weren’t suppose to bring it up.” Bartiromo clarified at the end of the segment that “there were no conditions or stipulations agreed to ahead of that interview.”
Trump then went on to detail his usual litany of complains against the late war hero and Arizona senator who died of brain cancer last August. The death of his longtime GOP rival has not diminished the president’s feelings toward him.
“I’m very unhappy that he didn’t repeal and replace Obamacare, as you know. He campaigned on repealing and replacing Obamacare for years,” Trump said during an Oval Office press spray earlier this month with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. “I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be.”
Trump’s 2015 joke that McCain was only a Vietnam war hero “because he was captured” set the tone between the two men for the rest of the 2016 presidential race and Trump’s first years in office.
The “fake news” charge is frequently leveled at CNN, MSNBC, ABC and CBS — but rarely to Fox News and other right-leaning media outlets.