Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said Thursday his panel would hold news organizations ‘accountable’ for not reporting the facts, though would not investigate U.S.-based outlets like President Trump had floated.
Burr was responding to an early a.m. tweet from Trump, who suggested that Burr’s committee – which recommitted to looking for collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign Wednesday –spend its time investigating ‘fake news,’ in the wake of the president getting a bevvy of negatives headlines.
‘Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!’ Trump wrote.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. (left), said Thursday that the Senate Intelligence Committee would hold news organizations ‘accountable’ for misreporting facts about the Russia probe, but said his panel would not investigate American news outlets, like President Trump advised
President Trump tweeted Thursday morning that he thought the Senate panel, currently investigating Russia, should instead probe American media networks, who produced a story yesterday that said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a ‘moron’
President Trump suggested the Senate Intelligence Committee – currently working on the Russia probe – move on and focus on American media networks instead, which have given the president a number of bad headlines in recent days
President Trump retweeted commentary by Fox News Channel’s Geraldo Rivero, who argued that the president and first lady ‘were amazingly gracious and graciously received by the grateful Puerto Rican people’ when Trump took a trip there Tuesday
Talking to CNN about the Russia investigation, Burr said if the committee found that a news organization had not covered it factually, ‘I think that you’ll see that in our report.’
‘You’ll see that in our hearings, and you should expect it because I think that the reporting of this – judging just by yesterday’s press conference – is loose at best, and they’ll have to stand behind what they report,’ Burr said.
But the North Carolina Republican dismissed any notion of Congress launching an investigation into American news media companies, which Trump had seemed to suggest.
‘No, not investigating news organizations – holding them accountable for what they say with no sources to substantiate the facts.’
Burr pledged that his committee would lay out how Russia interfered in the 2016 election ‘in a way that the American people will tell who was covering this factually and who was sensationalizing the coverage.’
‘It will be the news organizations that covered it somewhere differently that will be the ones with egg on their face,’ the senator told CNN.
Trump’s dual grievances with the Senate’s ongoing Russia probe and the media’s coverage of the president this week were evident in his a.m. tweet.
On Wednesday the White House had been embarrassed by an NBC News report that said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson almost quit his post in July and had also referred to Trump as a ‘moron’ at a Pentagon meeting.
And on Tuesday, Trump’s trip to Puerto Rice was widely panned by media commentators, with the state-out visual being the image of Trump gaily tossing rolls of papers towels to members of the crowd as they waited to pick up supplies on the hurricane-ravaged island, much of which still doesn’t have power.
On Thursday, Trump tried to combat the Puerto Rico narrative again, retweeting a Fox News segment starring Geraldo Rivero who had interviewed Trump during the visit to the island.
‘I think the president and the first lady were amazingly gracious and graciously received by the grateful Puerto Rican people,’ Rivera said.
Pundits, however, thought otherwise.
‘Trump’s Puerto Rico event was way worse than his tweets,’ argued CNN’s Chris Cillizza in an opinion piece.
‘Trump’s Puerto Rico Visit Is a Political Disaster,’ wrote the Atlantic’s David S. Graham.
The president had complimented the US territory for getting through the natural disaster with only a small death toll, compared to a ‘real catastrophe’ like Hurricane Katrina.
The next day, the press was back to Trump administration palace intrigue, with the NBC News story about Tillerson.
The report prompted the secretary of state to make a rare public statement, reiterating his support for the president and his agenda and labeling him ‘smart.’
Tillerson, however, never said he didn’t label his boss a ‘moron.’
Shortly after Tillerson’s statement, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins came back on the air and said her network had confirmed the ‘moron’ comment too, saying Trump had known about the dig before the NBC News report.
Meanwhile Trump had taken off in Air Force One en route to Las Vegas and was tweeting about the coverage.
‘Wow, so many Fake News stories today. No matter what I do or say, they will not write or speak truth. The Fake News Media is out of control!’ the president wrote.
‘NBC news is #FakeNews and more dishonest than even CNN. They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!’ he continued.
‘The @NBCNews story has just been totally refuted by Sec. Tillerson and @VP Pence. It is #FakeNews. They should issue an apology to AMERICA!’ the president added.
On Thursday, Trump was back to hammering NBC News about the Tillerson story again.
‘Rex Tillerson never threatened to resign. This is Fake News put out by @NBCNews. Low news and reporting standards. No verification from me,’ Trump wrote.
By that time he had escalated his complaints by suggesting American news organizations be probed by Congress.
A number of committees on Capitol Hill, including the Senate Intelligence Committee, are looking into aspects of the Russian disinformation campaign, part of which relied on fake news stories place on social media networks like Facebook, so that they would be shared.
Facebook recently handed over some 3,000 ads purchased by a Russian troll farm, which were put in place to sow discord among the American people and tilt last year’s presidential election away from Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Burr and and Mark Warner, D-Va., gave an update on the Russia probe Wednesday.
During the press conference, Burr confirmed that the committee is still looking into whether there was collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign.
‘The committee continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion,’ Burr, the Republican, said. ‘We have more work to do as it relates to collusion.’