I had missed this moment. It got overwhelmed by Trump’s joking references to election interference. But apparently while there was no US press in the room Trump joked about “fake news” and how it was a problem Russia doesn’t have but the US does.
Trump to Putin: "Get rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You don’t have this problem in Russia but we do …" (for full quote see here https://t.co/dbdVvB04y8) pic.twitter.com/MdGNXLTSjm
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 28, 2019
He says “get rid of them” at the beginning of the statement, according to various press reports. But this may have been a reference to clearing the room of press, at least in a literal sense. The key is praising Russia’s approach to press management over against the US, though Putin does pipe up and say they have a “fake news” problem too.
