Sometimes it's difficult to know if Trump is truly "lying," i.e. saying something he knows is false. But not this time. He's clearly lying about @maggieNYT. https://t.co/bx9CGUcdd3
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 22, 2018
CNN’s Brian Stelter called out President Trump on Sunday for a recent tweet criticizing New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman after she published a story about Trump’s relationship with his personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Trump tweeted on Saturday that Haberman was a “third rate reporter” and claimed he had nothing to do with her.
“That tweet is wrong in at least four different ways,” Stelter said about Trump’s Saturday tweet. “He didn’t even spell her name right and he called her a third-rate reporter even though he knows she dominates the White House beat. Heck, she just won a Pulitzer a few days ago.”{mosads}
“Sometimes when covering the president it is difficult to determine what is actually a lie, but this one is crystal clear,” Stelter said.
“Lying is disrespectful,” Stelter continued. “And it’s not just disrespectful to Haberman or to journalists, but to the public.”
Haberman, who also works as a political analyst for CNN, co-wrote an article on Saturday that detailed the negative aspects of the president’s relationship with Cohen and made the case that Cohen might cooperate with federal officials investigating his activities, including those related to Trump.
Stelter pointed out that even though Trump said he doesn’t speak or have anything to do with Haberman, they have a picture together at the Oval Office and Haberman “has interviewed Trump on the record more than a dozen times since 2015.”
Reporters from various publications have flocked to Haberman’s defense following the president’s comments.
Haberman was part of the team that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election and its connections to the Trump team.