CNN on Friday aired a montage of President Trump verbally attacking the media in response to the president’s condemnation of the shooting at The Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland that left five dead and others injured.
Trump addressed the shooting on Friday while speaking at an event marking six months since he signed the GOP tax bill into law.
“This attack shocked the conscience of our nation and filled our hearts with grief,” Trump said. “Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job.”
{mosads}CNN’s John Berman called the president out on air for using the phrase “violently attacked,” saying that he “clearly has no problem at all verbally attacking journalists.”
“He has been doing it since he started campaigning, he has been doing it since he became president, and he did it just this week,” Berman said.
The network then aired a clip of Trump speaking at a rally Tuesday night, in which he called the press “the enemy of the people.”
Berman said that while he does not doubt Trump’s sincerity in saying journalists should not be “violently attacked,” he finds it “hard to believe” Trump’s comments aboard Air Force One that he has “a lot of respect for the press.”
Berman’s comments were followed by a montage of Trump attacking the press in past speeches and rallies, including calling media “fake news,” “absolute scum,” “disgusting” and “very dishonest.”
Much of Trump’s criticism of the press has been directed at CNN, which he has repeatedly labeled “Fake News.”