Video | In tweeted video meme, Trump depicts himself beating up CNN
Trump sets off furor by beating figure depicting news media
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US President Donald Trump, who has revelled in his confrontational style with the news media, sparked fierce debate over whether he is inciting violence against journalists by posting a doctored video clip showing him bashing the head of a figure representing CNN.
The 10-year-old video, hailing back to Trump’s days as a guest celebrity at pro-wrestling events, came after a week in which his unrestrained Twitter attacks on two MSNBC talk show hosts drew widespread condemnation from members of both political parties.
The latest tweet was immediately condemned by journalists, who said Trump seemed to be promoting physical violence against the media, while a Republican lawmaker said the president was trying to “weaponise distrust” through his postings.
But administration officials insisted Trump has a right to respond to critical coverage.
In the 28-second video, Trump, in a suit and tie, is seen knocking down another man in a suit who is standing next to a wrestling ring. Trump repeatedly pummels the fallen man, whose face is covered by a superimposed CNN logo. A fake CNN logo then appears on the screen reading “FNN: Fraud News Network.”
A longer version of the video online shows that the man being beaten was World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) owner-promoter Vince McMahon, a friend of Trump’s. In that version, Trump also gets in the ring to shave McMahon’s head as part of the “The Battle of the Billionaires” at the WrestleMania 23 event.
McMahon was present at the White House in February to pose smilingly with the president when his wife Linda McMahon - a former WWE executive - was sworn in as Trump’s Small Business Administration chief.
Watch: undoctored video shows Trump ‘beating’ wrestling promoter
With Trump’s tweets coming just weeks after a mass shooting at a congressional baseball practice, reporters on Thursday asked White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders whether his rhetoric might be promoting violence.
She replied: “The president in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything, quite the contrary.”
The wrestling video prompted a wave of recriminations.
“It is a sad day when the president of the United States encourages violence against reporters,” CNN said in a statement. “Clearly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she said the president had never done so.”
A journalists’ group, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, roundly denounced the video. “We condemn the president’s threat of physical violence against journalists,” said a statement from the group’s executive director, Bruce Brown.
“This tweet is beneath the office of the presidency. Sadly, it is not beneath this president.”
A White House official, Homeland Security adviser Thomas Bossert, defended Trump’s video and said it demonstrated the president’s “genuine ability to communicate to the people.”
“I think that no one would perceive that as a threat,” he said.
“I hope they don’t. I do think that he’s beaten up in a way on cable platforms that he has a right to respond.”
But Republican Senator Ben Sasse rejected that argument, saying on CNN that there is a difference between complaining about bad coverage and “trying to weaponise distrust.”
Meanwhile, several journalists said they feared Trump was stirring up anti-media violence.
Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, said it was “unseemly” that Trump would “encourage such anger at the media.”
And Annie Lowrey, a journalist with The Atlantic magazine, tweeted: “In seriousness, I am terrified that a journalist - perhaps one of the many political reporters I know and love - is going to end up dead.”
Additional reporting by The Washington Post
