Araweelo News Network
US Vice President Mike Pence gives a press conference after a meeting at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on February 20, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
Brussels(ANN)-US Vice President Mike Pence says the Donald Trump administration supports a “free and independent press,” days after the president described the media as “the enemy of the American people.”
Pence made the remarks while speaking at a news conference in Brussels on Monday. He however said that President Trump will “continue to call out the media when they play fast and loose with the facts.”
“The truth is that we have in President Trump someone who has a unique ability to speak directly to the American people,” the VP said. “And when the media gets it wrong, I promise you President Trump will take his case straight to the American people to set the record straight.”
Trump has repeatedly accused the political press of being deceitful. On Friday, Trump blasted the New York Times, and broadcast news networks CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS as “fake news media.”
“The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” he tweeted.
His comment came one day after he held a press conference in the White House where he lambasted the media as “dishonest” and “fake news.”
“Many of our nation’s reporters and folks will not tell you the truth. And will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect that they deserve,” Trump said at Thursday’s press conference.
“The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people,” he said.
Donald Trump frequently criticized CNN’s coverage of him during the presidential election campaign. He has called it the “Clinton News Network.”
In the run-up to the presidential election, Trump repeatedly accused the media of bias for not covering “a large-scale voter fraud” underway during early voting across the country. In addition, he said the media was colluding with Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton in order to stop him winning the White House.
Trump’s campaign had been hit with many controversies since its inception in early 2015, but he still managed to stun the world by defeating the heavily-favored Democrat candidate in the election.
But despite Trump’s landslide victory against Clinton, CNN and other media outlets have not stopped targeting him; rather some of them have increased their attacks against the president.