The media outlet showed a montage video of President Donald Trump denouncing the media, as a means of responding to the president’s speech in condemnation of the shooting at The Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland, which claimed the lives of five on Thursday.
Commenting on the deadly shooting during a tax law anniversary event the following day, Trump stressed that the attack “had shocked the conscience of our nation and filled our hearts with grief.” He went on to say that journalists, “like all Americans,” should be liberated from the fear of “being violently attacked while doing their job.”
CNN’s John Berman quickly picked up on the president’s sharp phrase, observing that Trump finds it easy “to verbally attack journalists.”
The network aired footage of Trump speaking at a rally earlier this week, in which he branded the press “the enemy of the people.” Berman pointed to the obvious inconsistency with Trump’s earlier remarks, in which the president claimed that he had “a lot of respect for press.”
To prove the point, CNN — which, along with other mainstream media, Trump has repeatedly labeled as “fake news” — aired a montage of clips from past rallies and other events in which Trump strongly criticized the press.
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