The Trump team came out swinging against the media–specifically Buzzfeed and CNN–after they released stories about unsubstantiated, unverified claims alleging Russia had compromising information on Trump. Both the news outlets revealed the information the night before the President-Elect’s first press conference since his victory in November.
As the press conference began, Sean Spicer set the tone:
Before we start, I want to bring your attention to a few points on the report that was published in Buzzfeed last night. It’s frankly outrageous and highly irresponsible for a left-wing blog that was openly hostile to the President-Elect’s campaign to drop highly salacious and flat-out false information on the Internet just days before he takes the oath of office.
According to Buzzfeed‘s own editor, there are some serious reasons to doubt the allegations in the report. The executive editor of the New York Times also dismissed the report by saying it was “totally unsubstantiated”, echoing the concerns that many other reporters expressed on the Internet.
The fact that Buzzfeed and CNN made the decision to run with this unsubstantiated claim is a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks. The report is not an intelligence report, plain and simple. One issue that the report talked about was the relationship of three individuals associated with the campaign.
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