Trump invites network executives, anchors, and reporters to a ‘f---ing firing squad’
Network executives and anchors who went for an “off the record” meeting with Donald Trump Monday afternoon were apparently told they’d be discussing press access during the Trump administration. Instead, Donald Trump delivered a screaming harangue aimed at execs, anchors, reporters … and pictures.
“It was like a f---ing firing squad,” one source said of the meeting. "Trump started with [CNN President] Jeff Zucker and said, ‘I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed.’"
… “Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room full of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong,'" the source said. "He addressed everyone in the room calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. Trump didn’t say [NBC reporter] Katy Tur by name, but talked about a female correspondent who got it wrong.
Trump also complained about photos used by NBC, which he found “unflattering.”
Asked about the meeting, Kellyanne Conway said the reports of a Trump tirade weren’t true, and closed her statement with this fine reassurance for Freedom of Speech.
“By the way, it's an off-the-record meeting so whoever said that and mischaracterized it should think twice."
Who leaked the contents of the meeting? HUD Secretary Julián Castro has an idea.
It wasn’t just that Trump invited them up to be yelled at, he invited them up to be humiliated, so that he could them leak the news about how he kicked them in the balls and made them like it.