President Trump vowed Saturday to step up support of the CIA in his first public appearance as president since the inaugural ceremonies one day earlier.
“I am so behind you,” Trump told the more than 300 CIA officials who had gathered at the agency’s Virginia headquarters. “And I know sometimes you haven’t gotten the backing that you’ve wanted. And you’re going to get so much backing.”
Trump said he had decided to visit the CIA on his first day in office due to his “war with the media,” after a spate of stories questioned whether Trump would maintain a good relationship with spy agencies.
“They sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community,” Trump said of the media. “The reason you’re my number one stop, it is exactly the opposite.”
Trump began facing speculation about his treatment of the intelligence community late last year, when he repeatedly disputed the strength of the evidence suggesting Russians had launched cyberattacks against high-level Democrats in a clear effort to tip the election his way.
But he veered from the intelligence community to launch a full-throated attack on the news media, accusing the press of downplaying the size of the crowds at his inauguration. He claimed networks broadcast “empty fields” when he had perceived the National Mall as being crowded from his vantage point at the podium.
Trump at CIA headquarters: We caught the press and they're "going to pay a big price" https://t.co/ftZ6vnaggx pic.twitter.com/xFRch74WBf— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 21, 2017
“I turn on, by mistake, I get this network, and it showed an empty field,” Trump said. “And it said we drew 250,000 people. Now, that’s not bad. But it’s a lie. We had 250,000 people literally around in the little ball that we constructed, that was 250,000 people. The rest of the 20-block area, all the way back to the Washington Monument, it was packed. So we caught them and we caught them in a beauty and I think they’re going to pay a big price.”
He also brought up a second incident that happened late Friday, when a Time magazine reporter said Trump had removed the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. placed in the Oval Office by the Obama administration when he returned the bust of Winston Churchill. The reporter, Zeke Miller, tweeted out an apology that he didn’t see the King statue because he was being blocked. After press secretary Sean Spicer had reamed the press for spreading the misinformation, Trump called out Miller by name to the CIA.
“There was a cameraman that was in front of it. So Zeke, Zeke from Time magazine, writes the story about I took down — I would never do that because I have great respect for Dr. Martin Luther King, but this is how dishonest the media is,” Trump said.
Vice President Mike Pence introduced Trump to the cheering crowd of CIA officials.
“I’ve never met anyone more dedicated to the safety and security of the people of the United States of America,” Pence said of the president.
Trump also praised Rep. Mike Pompeo, his nominee for CIA director, and slammed Democrats for playing “little political games” that have delayed Pompeo’s confirmation.
