President Donald Trump on Tuesday railed against “fake news suppression polls” and former President Bill Clinton’s tarmac meeting with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, amid reports that North Korea has successfully miniaturized a nuclear weapon.
“After 200 days, rarely has any Administration achieved what we have achieved,” Trump tweeted from his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “Not even close! Don’t believe the Fake News Suppression Polls!”
A CNN poll released Tuesday on Trump’s 200th day in office reflected his lowest overall approval rating to date — 38 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s job performance, while 56 percent disapproved.
The poll was conducted from Aug. 3–6, 2017 via landline and cell phone, from a sample of 1,018 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percent.
After 200 days, rarely has any Administration achieved what we have achieved..not even close! Don't believe the Fake News Suppression Polls!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2017
Trump also tweeted about “e-mails” he claimed were proof the “AmazonWashingtonPost and the FailingNewYorkTimes were reluctant” to cover a meeting between Clinton and Lynch on the latter’s plane in June 2016 amid a Justice Department investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
E-mails show that the AmazonWashingtonPost and the FailingNewYorkTimes were reluctant to cover the Clinton/Lynch secret meeting in plane.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2017
He appeared to be referencing a document dump by the American Center for Law and Justice, an organization run by Trump’s private lawyer Jay Sekulow.
The center claimed the documents provide “clear evidence that the main stream media was colluding with the DOJ to bury the story.”
In one email the center cited, a Washington Post reporter asked a Justice Department spokeswoman to provide more details about Lynch’s and Clinton’s meeting.
“My editors are still pretty interested, and I’m hoping I can put it to rest by answering just a few more questions,” the reporter wrote.
In another, a New York Times reporter said he had been “pressed into service” to report on the story, and asked the spokeswoman to comment on whether Lynch considered the meeting to constitute “a conflict of interest, given the ongoing email investigation.”
The American Center for Law and Justice selectively excerpted both emails and claimed the New York Times reporter’s request was made “apologetically.”
Trump made no comment on reports that North Korea has successfully produced a nuclear weapon small enough to fit inside its missiles, which analysts said could reach a wide swath of the United States, though Trump categorically stated in January that he would not let that happen.
North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017
The President remains at his private golf club on a “working vacation.”
