President Donald Trump ridiculed the Washington Post as a “Russian asset” after a columnist accused Senate Majority Mitch McConnell of being a “Russian asset.”
“I think the Washington Post is a Russian asset by comparison,” Trump said. “Mitch McConnell loves our country. He’s done a great job.”
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank claimed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was helping Russia in a piece headlined “Mitch McConnell is a Russian Asset.”
The president spoke about the controversy as he left the White House for a speech recognizing the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia.
Trump said the Washington Post was also “fake news,” printed for the benefit of Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.
“They actually said that Mitch McConnell is an asset of Russia?” Trump asked. “They oughta’ be ashamed of themselves and they ought to apologize.”
On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough claimed McConnell was “aiding and abetting Putin’s ongoing attempts to subvert U.S. democracy” decrying the Senate Majority Leader with the nickname “Moscow Mitch.”
McConnell fired back at the pundits in a speech on Monday, defending his record of American patriotism.
“I was called unpatriotic, un-American and essentially treasonous by a couple of left-wing pundits on the basis of bold-faced lies,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor, decrying the attacks as “modern-day McCarthyism.”
The Wall Street Journal in an editorial also defended McConnell on Tuesday.
“The truth is that Mr. McConnell has been far tougher on Vladimir Putin than most Democrats were across the Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama Administrations,” the editorial board wrote.
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