President-elect Donald Trump has held his first press conference since July 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. The event wasn’t without some drama – Trump attacked media publications CNN and BuzzFeed.
BuzzFeed
Trump called BuzzFeed a “leftwing blog” and a “failing pile of garbage” for publishing the unverified report which claimed (among other things) that Trump has deep ties with Russia. The opening paragraph of the BuzzFeed article states: “A dossier, compiled by a person who has claimed to be a former British intelligence official, alleges Russia has compromising information on Trump. The allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors”.
Responding to the article at the press conference, Trump said: “I think it’s a disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got released to the public. As far as BuzzFeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I think they’re going to suffer the consequences.”
Suffer the consequences they have; withing five hours BuzzFeed released a bunch of limited-edition merchandise including t-shirts, stickers and an actual garbage can with the quote “a failing pile of garbage”.
All proceeds from purchases of BuzzFeed’s “Failing Pile of Garbage” merchandise will go to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
BuzzFeed employees from across the globe have been tweeting about Trump’s description:
That’s MISTER failing pile of garbage to you
— Ned Fulmer (@nedfulmer) January 11, 2017
lmao newsroom broke out in laughter and cheers when trump called buzzfeed a ‘failing pile of garbage’
— Tracy Clayton (@brokeymcpoverty) January 11, 2017
get your ‘failing pile of garbage’ swag rn ? ?https://t.co/5JBXS4moKS pic.twitter.com/j0m2RrjSpx
— Sara Yasin (@missyasin) January 11, 2017
Well that’s quite an ominous strapline on BBC News. pic.twitter.com/k2ML0E4T1e
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) January 11, 2017
That was fast. pic.twitter.com/pZx6VYBsHR
— Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) January 11, 2017
Woke up at 03:00am to watch presser. Went back to bed hoping it was a bad dream. Ah, nope… ? pic.twitter.com/AYpkFwMAGH
— Simon Crerar (@simoncrerar) January 11, 2017
CNN
He also referred to CNN as “fake news” because it broke the story that both President Obama and Trump had been briefed on allegations that Russia has “compromising personal and financial information” about Trump.
“Since you’re attacking us, can you give us a question?” CNN’s senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta asked during the conference. Trump replied, “Not you, not you, your organization is terrible.
“I am not going to give you a question. You are fake news.” Watch the exchange below:
https://youtu.be/PZI0Q3LQZmo
Acosta later said that incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer threatened to have him removed from the press conference if he tried to ask another question.
CNN reporter Jim @Acosta says @seanspicer, who’ll be Trump’s press secretary, told him he’d be thrown out if he tried again to get Qs in
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) January 11, 2017
CNN’s Jim @Acosta said on the air that Trump’s team threatened to yank him from press conference if he tried to speak up again.
Full quote pic.twitter.com/HphCiByLS2
— Dominic Holden (@dominicholden) January 11, 2017
CNN hasn’t released any merchandise quoting Trump.
