Senate should investigate fake news, says Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump suggested that the Senate Intelligence Committee should thoroughly investigate the media companies airing fake news.

Donald Trump
Reuters

US President Donald Trump is showing no signs of minimizing his attack on media houses, as he suggested a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation against news outlets for "fake" reporting. Trump has been lashing out against US media for the past one week following the remarks made by NBC on the President's relationship with Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State.

Trump tweeted that the media companies in the nation are reporting things that are "just made up".

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, on Thursday said that the President is quite unhappy with the fact that media houses are manipulating things in such a way that inaccurate information is getting presented as factual. As per Sanders, only 5 percent media covering about the President are positive, and it should be very much higher considering the positive things happening in the country.

Trump unhappy about media reports on his relationship with Tillerson

Close sources to the White House believe that it is the Wednesday, October 4 news report aired on NBC News that described Trump's relationship with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson which compelled the President to engage in a verbal war with US Media houses.

NBC News has reported that Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning, last July, as he was totally dissatisfied about Trump's style of administration. The news also added that Tillerson called Trump, a "moron".

Questioning the integrity of NBC's news report, the Secretary of the State issued a rare statement, making it clear that he has never considered leaving the post. Donald Trump too joined the party against NBC and told that he has total confidence on Rex Tillerson. The President added that the NBC news report is cooked up, and it is totally baseless in nature.

NBC News is standing by its reporting, and they have assured the genuineness of the news reported.

According to NBC, the relationship between Trump and Tillerson worsened following the Secretary of State's remarks on United States' relationship with North Korea. Tillerson has remarked that the US has an open line of communication with Kim Jong-Un, the North Korean Supreme Leader.

As a reply to Tillerson, Donald Trump tweeted that the Secretary of the State is wasting his time trying to negotiate with the "Little Rocket Man", Kim Jong-Un. Trump also tweeted that the US will do what has to be done with North Korea.

Questions of Russian interference in the US Presidential Election

On October 04, 2017, committee leaders, Sens. Richard M. Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) revealed that Russia has tried to interfere in the United States Presidential Election, 2016. The duo also added that they have not found any proofs to substantiate the allegation that Trump has conspired with Russian agencies to manipulate the results of the poll. The leaders also made it clear that investigations on this angle are going on.

The committee leaders warned that Russian agencies will try to interfere in the 2020 presidential elections too.

In a talk with Politico Magazine, Sens. Richard M. Burr told that the committee is not going to investigate media houses, but added that some of the crucial findings of the Russia probe, contradict with some media reports.

"We will use the findings of our report to let the American people hold every news organization accountable for what they portrayed as fact, in many cases without sources — at least, no sources that would admit to it. And I think, when we finish our report, we will find that quite a few news organizations ran stories that were not factual," said Burr, reports Politico.

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