President Donald Trump on Sunday vented his frustration with both the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and any possible ties to the Trump Campaign, and also again blasted the the press, as he accused the news media of never-ending negative coverage of 'the tremendously positive results we are achieving.'
"I will not allow our great country to be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the dying newspaper industry," the President said in a flurry of salvos at the news media on Sunday, in which he took specific aim at the New York Times and Washington Post.
Tweeting from his golf club in New Jersey, the President revealed that he had a recent meeting with the Publisher of the New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, as Mr. Trump said he spent time talking about "Fake News," again labeling the the press the "Enemy of the People."
The mention of the meeting with the New York Times Publisher drew a response from the "Gray Lady," as Sulzberger said by talking about the meeting, the President had violated the off-the-record nature of the sitdown.
In a statement issued by the paper on Sunday, Sulzberger said he accepted the meeting with the President to push back on Mr. Trump's "deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric."
"I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous," Sulzberger stated on Sunday.
"I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists “the enemy of the people," Sulzberger wrote. "I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence."
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
On the Russia investigation, the President once more accused Mueller of supposedly ignoring wrong doing by Democrats, continuing to press the GOP argument that the Justice Department has gone easy on questions involving Hillary Clinton, while doggedly pursuing issues related to Mr. Trump.
For the second time in the last eight days, the President said the "The Robert Mueller Rigged Witch Hunt" was now employing 17 "Angry Democrats," up from the usual figure of 13 which the President has used for months.
It was not immediately apparent why the President now indicated that number had changed.
It was also not immediately obvious what spurred the sudden spasm of tweets about the Russia investigation - though the trial of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort does begin on Tuesday.
While that case was spurred by the work done by the Special Counsel's office - the actual details of the bank and tax fraud charges brought by a federal grand jury do not seem to have any tentacles to the broader Russia investigation.
During a speech to a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City last week, the President made clear his contempt for the news media.
"Don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news," he said as members of the audience booed the assembled press corps.
The VFW issued a statement after the President's speech saying, "we were disappointed to hear some of our members boo the press during President Trump's remarks."
"We were happy to have them there," the VFW tweeted.
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