On Wednesday, Donald Trump held his first press conference since being elected, and it quickly turned into controversy. As Trump targeted and dismissed recent reports claiming he could be blackmailed by Russia, the president-elect also got into an altercation with a reporter from CNN.
Trump vs the press
On Tuesday night, CNN broke an exclusive story that claimed Russia had obtained "compromising" information about Donald Trump that could be used against him in the form of blackmail. Within hours, Buzzfeed released additional information, that has not yet been verified.
In the Buzzfeed report, it states Russia had information regarding an alleged video of Trump engaging in lewd sexual behavior with female sex workers. Trump quickly took to Twitter to refer to the story as "Fake News," something that he did again during another social media rant the next morning. As reported by Fox News on January 11, Trump took part in a press conference and it started to get out of hand.
Donald Trump refuses to take a question from CNN's Senior White House Correspondent @Acosta https://t.co/SYIPLekALG https://t.co/Im5Dlc38B4
— CNN (@CNN) January 11, 2017
At Trump Tower in New York City, future White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was the first to take to the microphone, and labeled the CNN and Buzzfeed stories as "outrageous," while labeling the latter to be a "left-wing blog." Once Donald Trump came up to the stage, the president-elect quickly pushed back against the report and allegations against him, reportedly calling them "fake news," while praising the news outlets that challenged the report.
After repeatedly bringing up the unverified report, CNN reporter Jim Acosta attempted to get in a question.
.@realDonaldTrump to reporter: "YOU are fake news." pic.twitter.com/6nasXm99TK
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 11, 2017
"Since you are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance?" Jim Acosta of CNN asked. "Don't be rude," Donald Trump responded.
"Can you give us a question," Acosta asked repeatedly. In response, the president-elect fired back, "I'm not gonna give you a question." Brushing Acosta off for the final time, Trump pointed his finger at him and stated, "You are fake news!."
Next up
The press conference lasted over an hour, and also included information about Trump's plan to have taxpayers front the money to build a Southern border wall, before being later reimbursed by Mexico. In addition, Donald Trump announced he had signed over controlling interest of his businesses to his two sons, while vowing to repeal and quickly replace Obamacare after he is sworn into office.
