President Donald Trump said it would be “fun” to sue CNN during his remarks at a re-election fundraiser on Wednesday, according to audio released Friday by the Intercept.
“These are really dishonest people. Should I sue them? I mean, they’re phonies,” Trump said, according to the recording. “I mean, these are horrible human beings.”
The President’s team disinvited press from the fundraiser at the last minute, citing “logistical challenges” and “confusion” with the Republican National Committee.
He claimed CNN president Jeff Zucker is “going to resign at some point pretty soon.”
“It’s a shame what they’ve done to the name CNN, that I can tell you,” Trump said. “But as far as I’m concerned, I love it. If anybody’s a lawyer in the house and if you think I have a good lawsuit, because I feel like we do. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
(Trump’s remarks on CNN begin around the 8:05 mark.)
Despite his longstanding feud with CNN, Trump spent the last three days railing against MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.
On Thursday, Trump attacked Brzezinski in an early-morning tweetstorm and claimed she visited his Mar-a-Lago resort while “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
On Friday, he called “Morning Joe” a “bad show.”
And on Saturday, Trump started his morning with a series of tweets railing against NBC News executives while claiming “Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people.”
Trump did make room in the tirade to attack CNN as “garbage journalism.”
The Washington Post reported on Friday that some unnamed White House advisers are frustrated with Trump’s focus on NBC News as opposed to CNN, and believe his feud with the latter network has “clearer villains and heroes.”
