'#FraudNewsCNN!' Trump spends much of day railing against the media
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President Donald Trump posted a stream of tweets throughout Saturday targeting various journalists and media outlets, and defending his social media habit in the wake of his Twitter feud with MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.
"My use of social media is not Presidential - it's MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!" he said on Twitter.
Trump's tweets had garnered bipartisan criticism earlier in the week after he ripped into Brzezinski for supposedly "bleeding from a face-lift" when she visited his Florida estate over the New Year. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers condemned Trump's tweets, and many have urged him to stop tweeting altogether.
"The FAKE & FRAUDULENT NEWS MEDIA is working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media - but remember, I won … the 2016 election with interviews, speeches and social media," Trump said Saturday.
"I had to beat #FakeNews, and did. We will continue to WIN!"
Trump had attacked Brzezinski and Scarborough throughout the week, culminating in a Saturday-morning tirade claiming that "Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!"
Trump also accused NBC of firing host Greta Van Susteren "because she refused to go along w/ 'Trump hate!'" Van Susteren, formerly of Fox News, was abruptly fired less than six months into her tenure at MSNBC after plummeting viewership during the 6 p.m. hour.
Trump also raged against CNN over a story it had retracted earlier in the week linking a member of Trump's transition team to a Russia-related investigation. CNN apologized for the story and three reporters resigned.
"I am thinking about changing the name #FakeNews CNN to #FraudNewsCNN!" he wrote in a tweet that was pinned to the top of his profile shortly after.
"I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It's about time!" he wrote.