President Trump had a blunt response for a reporter accusing him of motivating political violence with his speech.
There has been a rash of politically motivated terror in the past two weeks. A right-wing zealot has been arrested in coordination with mail bombs sent to prominent Democrats and media targets, and a Synagogue was attacked by an anti-Semite, killing 11 members of the congregation.
As Trump was leaving the White House Friday, a reporter yelled, “You’re encouraging politically motivated violence with the way you speak.”
Trump pointed at the reporter and shot back, “You’re creating violence by your question.”
The reporter gasped, “Me?” and Trump replied, “You are creating — you.”
WATCH:
The president continued, saying that violence is stoked up by “fake news.”
As he explained to the reporter:
A lot of the reporters are creating violence by not writing the truth. The fake news is creating violence. You know what? The people that support Trump and the people that support us, which is a lot of people, most people, many people, those people know when a story is true and when a story is false. If the media would write correctly and write accurately and write fairly, you’d have a lot less violence in the country.
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Trump has regularly said that the fake news media are the “enemy of the people” and tweeted earlier this week, “The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!”
Check out tweets from last two days. I refer to Fake News Media when mentioning Enemy of the People – but dishonest reporters use only the word “Media.” The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2018