Trump doubles down on calling for Pulitzers to be revoked from WaPost, NYT

Three years after The Washington Post and The New York Times won Pulitzer Prizes for their work investigating the Trump campaign, it still stings the former president.

On Friday, former President Trump doubled down on his calls for the Pulitzers to be revoked from the two newspapers over their investigations into his 2016 campaign and Russian election interference.

“These Pulitzer Prizes for totally incorrect reporting have become worthless and meaningless,” Trump said in a statement issued through his Save America PAC on Friday.

Trump claimed that the Pulitzer Prize Board was “too embarrassed” to respond to a letter addressed to interim Administrator Bud Kliment earlier this month urging the board to revoke the news outlets’ Pulitzers.

In the letter dated Oct. 3, he claimed that the Pulitzer Prize award in national reporting given to the two newspapers was “based on false reporting of a non-existent link between the Kremlin and the Trump Campaign.”

“The Pulitzer Board has a standing process for reviewing questions about past awards, under the guidelines of which complaints are considered by an appointed committee,” The Pulitzer Prizes told The Hill in a statement when asked about the matter.

The two newspapers received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize award in national reporting for their reporting, which examined Russian interference into the 2016 presidential campaign, specifically into Trump’s then-presidential campaign, in addition to his transition team and his time at the White House.

The stories detailed a series of revelations, including a meeting held between a Russian official and Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower in which the Russian official promised to provide the campaign with damaging materials on then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

It also alleged that before Trump officially started in his role as president, discussions had been held between Russia and former national security adviser Michael Flynn about sanctions.

Trump blasted the reporting numerous times and had previously called for the award given to both newspapers to be revoked in 2019 after then-Attorney General William Barr issued a summary of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings in the Russia investigation.

“No report in our package of Pulitzer-prize winning work has been challenged,” Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for The New York Times, said in 2019.

“In fact, what we know of the Mueller report from the Attorney General’s summary confirms our coverage. Russia actively worked to upend the American elections in 2016 and there were multiple instances of Trump Transition and Administration officials having contact with Russia,” she continued.

This story was updated at 1:10 p.m.