White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said Saturday that President Donald Trump should be taken “seriously” in his claim that the press is “the enemy of the American people.”
“I think you should take it seriously,” Priebus said of Trump’s claim in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
In a tweet posted Friday, Trump claimed that the “FAKE NEWS media” is not his personal nemesis but rather “the enemy of the American People.”
Priebus complained Saturday about “bogus stories” by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
“Both stories grossly inaccurate, overstated, overblown and it’s total garbage,” he said. “So we spend, you know, 48 hours on bogus stories, and the American people suffer. So I do think it’s a problem.”
“The enemy?” John Dickerson pressed.
“If the theory is that the press is supposed to be a free forum of information to speak to the American people, I think it ought to be accurate,” Priebus replied.
During its first weeks in the White House, Trump’s administration has suffered from a deluge of leaks.
Priebus dismissed reports based on unnamed sources and “false leaked documents.”
“I think that the media should stop with this unnamed source stuff, put names on a piece of paper and print it,” Priebus said. “If people aren’t willing to put their name next to a quote, then the quote shouldn’t be listed.”
After the interview, Dickerson noted that the President himself has a history of citing unnamed sources.
Anonymous sources. https://t.co/oIPuZGzkvA
— John Dickerson (@jdickerson) February 19, 2017
