President Trump proclaimed Wednesday that ‘Facebook was always anti-Trump,’ suggesting the social media giant is in cahoots with the mainstream media to taint his brand.
‘Facebook was always anti-Trump. The Networks were always anti-Trump hence, Fake News @nytimes(apologized) & @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?’ Trump wrote, following that up a boast that, ‘the people were Pro-Trump!’
‘Virtually no President has accomplished what we have accomplished in the first 9 months-and economy roaring,’ the president added.
Trump’s media grumblings come at the same time Facebook has been scrutinized for selling ads last year to the Russians, with a new Politico report saying those ads boosted Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Hillary Clinton’s primary opponent, and Jill Stein, the Green Party’s spoiler, along with Trump.
President Trump clashed with Facebook Wednesday morning, as the social media company turns over Russian-linked ads to Congressional investigators this week
President Trump blasted Facebook Wednesday morning, suggesting the social media platform was ‘anti-Trump.’ His tweets come as Facebook has handed over Russian-linked ads to investigators, some of which promoted Trump, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein
Politico reported that some of the Russian-linked Facebook ads promoted Jill Stein (left), who may have siphoned some votes from Democrat Hillary Clinton, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (right), who ran against Clinton in the primary
The Stein ad was purchased at the end of the general election cycle.
‘Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein,’ it read, according to Politico’s source. ‘Trust me. It’s not a wasted vote. … The only way to take our country back is to stop voting for the corporations and banks that own us. #GrowaSpineVoteJill Stein.’
Trump’s margin of victory was smaller than the votes Stein received in two key states during last year’s presidential election.
In Michigan, Trump beat Clinton by 10,704 votes, while Stein received 51,463 votes, according to The Hill newspaper, which pulled tallies off the state voting websites.
Additionally, in Wisconsin, Trump earned 22,177 over Clinton, while Stein got 31,006 votes.
It’s unclear how many voters saw the Facebook ads, of which the company found that about 3,000 were likely bought by accounts and pages operated out of Russia.
However, they only represented about 1 percent of all election-themed ads on the social media site, costing the supposed Russians about $150,000.
While some of the ads were riddled with mistakes, Politico’s source said, the fact that they were more nuanced than just pick-Trump-over-Clinton shows an amount of sophistication too.
Facebook had previously noted that the ads didn’t specifically reference the presidential election, but instead ‘appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.’
Facebook pointed to that statement, written by Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos and released on September 6, when Politico asked for comment about the pro-Stein and pro-Sanders ads.
Last week, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg agreed to hand copies of the ads over to Congressional investigators on Capitol Hill.
Zuckerberg also noted that his team had briefed Special Counsel Robert Mueller, how heading the federal probe once helmed by fired FBI Director James Comey.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told CNN this week that the ‘million-dollar question’ is how the Russians knew to target these ads.
‘Did they know this just by following political news in America?’ he mused. ‘Did they geo-target both geographically and by demographics in ways that at least at first blush appear pretty sophisticated?’
‘These are the kind of questions that we need to get answered and that’s why we need them in a public hearing,’ Warner urged.
The Virginia Democrat also noted that it’s ‘too early to tell,’ whether any Trump campaign officials were connected to the ads.
The committee’s chair, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said there’s ‘no evidence yet’ of collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign.
‘The social media platforms look to be a tool that were utilized by a foreign power to impact the 2016 elections,’ Burr told CNN. ‘Is there collusion? None that anybody can see.’