President Donald Trump continued his on-going assault on the media Friday during his CPAC speech, saying, “There are some terrible, dishonest people” among the press and he is going to do something about it.
“A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. They are the enemy of the people because they have no sources, they just make them up when there are none,” Trump said before bashing a recent story that he said cited nine sources.
“There are no nine people,” he said. “I don’t believe there was one or two people… they make up sources.”
Trump then explained that the media dropped the word “fake” when he recently called fake news the enemy of the people, in an attempt to falsely portray the president as referring to all media as the enemy of the people.
“All of the sudden, the story became the media is the enemy, they take the word fake out,” Trump said. “But that’s the way they are… I don’t mind bad stories if I deserve them.”
He repeatedly said he was only against the “fake” news, not all news, and said they shouldn’t be allowed to use anonymous sources.
“Let them say it to my face,” Trump said. “Let there be no more [anonymous] sources.”
Trump said that the “dishonest” media claims the administration can’t criticize coverage because of the First Amendment.
“I love the First Amendment. Nobody loves it better than me. Nobody. Who uses it more than I do? But the First Amendment gives all of us, it gives it to me, it gives it to you, it gives it to all Americans the right to speak our minds freely,” Trump said. “It gives you the right, and me the right, to criticize fake news.”
Trump continued: “The fake news doesn’t tell the truth.”
On Thursday at CPAC, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon damned the media for how it “portrayed the campaign, how they portrayed the transition and now they’re portraying the administration.” Trump continued his habit of echoing Bannon’s rhetoric when it comes to dealing with the media, which Bannon calls the “opposition party” on a regular basis.
Check out the video above.