President Donald Trump ridiculed BuzzFeed on Saturday as “disgraceful” after the website published a Russia story special counsel Robert Mueller’s team declared inaccurate.
“Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage!” he wrote on Saturday morning.
BuzzFeed reported Friday that the president may have committed perjury by instructing his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about his business dealings with Russia.
The story ricocheted across the media for most of Friday as most journalists deemed the story credible before a rare statement from Mueller’s investigation team denied that the report was accurate.
“Buzzfeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate,” special counsel spokesperson Peter Carr said in a statement.
Later Saturday, Trump called the BuzzFeed story “a totally phony story” while speaking with reporters at the White House.
“I think that the Buzzfeed piece was a disgrace to our country. It was a disgrace to journalism, and I think also that the coverage by the mainstream media was disgraceful, and I think it’s going to take a long time for the mainstream media to recover its credibility,” he said.
Trump thanked Mueller for issuing a statement refuting the report.
“I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. I think it was very appropriate that they did so, I very much appreciate that,” he said.
Despite Mueller’s statement, BuzzFeed editors demanded Mueller clarify which part of the report he was disputing.
Trump also reminded followers that BuzzFeed had published the unverified “dossier” Democrats created to smear his presidency before it began.
“A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!” he wrote.
In January 2017, Trump referred to BuzzFeed as a “failing pile of garbage” for publishing the dossier:
Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019
Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited “Dossier,” paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based! A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.