GOP nominee Donald Trump slammed the New York Times as a “failing” media enterprise Sunday, after it published two hit pieces against him, mirroring Clinton campaign talking points.
The first piece, headlined “Inside the Failing Mission to Tame Trump’s Tongue,” insinuated that ‘anonymous sources’ inside Trump’s campaign claim that he is perpetually ‘sullen and erratic’.
“He veers from barking at members of his staff to grumbling about how he was better off following his own instincts during the primaries and suggesting he should not have heeded their calls for change,” the smear piece stated, adding that Trump “broods about his souring relationship with the news media.”
A second piece on Sunday charged that Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort’s has intimate ties with politically corrupt pro-Kremlin elements in the Ukraine.
The Times touted the report, saying it “offers new details of how [Manafort] mixed politics and business out of public view and benefited from powerful interests now under scrutiny by the new government in Kiev.”
The article coincided with the Clinton campaign calling for Trump to reveal the connections that they believe exist between his aides and Russia.
“On the eve of what the Trump campaign has billed as a major foreign policy speech, we have learned of more troubling connections between Donald Trump’s team and pro-Kremlin elements in Ukraine,” campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement late Sunday night.
“Given the pro-Putin policy stances adopted by Donald Trump and the recent Russian government hacking and disclosure of Democratic Party records, Donald Trump has a responsibility to disclose campaign chair Paul Manafort’s and all other campaign employees’ and advisers’ ties to Russian or pro-Kremlin entities, including whether any of Trump’s employees or advisers are currently representing and or being paid by them.” the statement added.
Trump has previously rubbished all claims that he has any ties with the Russian government, yet it hasn’t prevented pro-Clinton figures and media talking heads from continuing the talking point, with some even going as far as to suggest Trump is some kind of Russian agent committing treason.
Trump responded Sunday to the Times hit pieces, taking to Twitter:
The failing @nytimes talks about anonymous sources and meetings that never happened. Their reporting is fiction. The media protects Hillary!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
The failing @nytimes, which never spoke to me, keeps saying that I am saying to advisers that I will change. False, I am who I am-never said
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
It is not "freedom of the press" when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
Crooked Hillary Clinton is being protected by the media. She is not a talented person or politician. The dishonest media refuses to expose!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
Trump charged that he would have a 20 percent lead over Clinton if “the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say.”
If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
My rallies are not covered properly by the media. They never discuss the real message and never show crowd size or enthusiasm.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
I am not only fighting Crooked Hillary, I am fighting the dishonest and corrupt media and her government protection process. People get it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
In a speech last week, Trump told supporters “I’m not running against Crooked Hillary [Clinton], I’m running against the crooked media.”
.@realDonaldTrump: I'm not running against Clinton, "I'm running against the crooked media" https://t.co/nOm2CePhoV https://t.co/LvpBsY5fdt
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 14, 2016
Paul Manafort himself appeared on CNN Sunday, and became embroiled in an exchange with host Jake Tapper after accusing the media of using Clinton campaign talking points to attack Trump:
Tapper argued that the media has been covering the campaigning fairly, and denied covering for Clinton:
“These things, just because you say them, they’re not true. We have been covering the substance. We have been covering the things that are bad to Hillary Clinton.” Tapper claimed.
Manafort also issued a statement this morning dismissing the NYT claims as “unfounded, silly and nonsensical”:
Paul Manafort on @nytimes/Ukraine report: suggestion he accepted cash payments "unfounded, silly and nonsensical" pic.twitter.com/EyQzIOradc
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) August 15, 2016
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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com
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