President Trump blasted the “Fake News Media” in an early morning tweet on Friday after some media outlets corrected reports that he called illegal immigrants “animals.”
Trump drew criticism after saying during a roundtable discussion with California officials that some gang members that entered the U.S. illegally are “animals.” Some news outlets reported on the comment without noting that he was referring specifically to MS-13 gang members, rather than all immigrants who are in the country without legal status.
“Fake News Media had me calling Immigrants, or Illegal Immigrants, ‘Animals.’ Wrong!” he tweeted. “They were begrudgingly forced to withdraw their stories. I referred to MS 13 Gang Members as ‘Animals,’ a big difference – and so true. Fake News got it purposely wrong, as usual!”
The Associated Press deleted a tweet about the comment, saying that it “wasn’t made clear” that the president was referring to gang members at the time.
{mosads}Several other major news outlets, including The New York Times, CBS, CNN, NBC and ABC also did not note that Trump was referring to MS-13 gang members in initial tweets about the story.
CNN wrote a second tweet explaining that the context was included in its article about the comment, and that Trump’s remarks were “in response to comments about members of MS-13 and other undocumented immigrants who are deported for committing crimes.”
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said that those criticizing Trump for the comment without the full story owe Trump “an apology.”