Political fights in Washington have boiled down to the news media’s word against the Trump administration’s word, leaving voters to decide on their own which side they trust, and frequently, with little information.
In the last week, the media have published damaging stories about the White House, mostly dealing with Russia and based on anonymous sources. In each case, an administration official of consequence has gone on the record to refute the report with neither the White House nor reporters able to prove the validity of either side.
It’s happened twice already this week. On Monday, the Washington Post published an explosive report that in a meeting last week at the White House, Trump shared secret national security intelligence with Russian officials.
“President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State,” said the story, which sent waves through Washington.
The report withheld key details on the intelligence Trump allegedly “revealed,” even while coming with heavy suggestion that it was shared inappropriately.
But three White House officials who said they were in the room for the meeting, including national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, rebutted the overall report, even while declining to address some of its specifics. “The story that came out tonight as reported is false,” McMaster said in a statement shortly after the report published.
Late Tuesday, the New York Times said unnamed officials told the paper about a memo from former FBI Director James Comey that said Trump tried to convince him to drop his investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynn. But the memo has not been seen, and Republicans rushed to warn Trump that they would be demanding it.
Again, the White House denied the story. “The President has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” the White House said in a statement.
The he-said, she-said dynamic between the White House and the media is likely doing nothing to burnish the public’s view of either side at a time when institutions are increasingly less trusted by Americans.
Even before the latest wave of reports that have damaged Trump’s administration, there was evidence that both Trump and the media are hurting each other. A Monmouth University poll published March 29 said 58 percent of those asked believe the state of the administration’s relationship with the media has hurt Trump’s image.
At the same time, 51 percent said that the relationship has hurt the media’s image.
“It is an understatement to say the new administration’s relationship with the fourth estate cannot be characterized as friendly or even respectful,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said at the time. “This ugliness has hurt each side’s reputation.”
The latest round of back and forths between Trump and the media started last week. A New York Times report on May 10 suggested that ousted FBI Director James Comey was fired after requesting more resources from the Justice Department in order to further investigate whether there was any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Citing anonymous “congressional officials,” the Times called its reporting “the first clear-cut evidence that Mr. Comey believed the bureau needed more resources to handle a sprawling and highly politicized counterintelligence investigation.” The report was picked up by multiple publications and discussed at length on cable news.
But the paper’s claim was undermined by acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who told Congress the next day that he believed the FBI has “adequate resources” to carry out the investigation. “I can assure you we are covered,” he added.
Also on May 10, the Post reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had “threatened to resign after the narrative emerging from the White House on Tuesday evening cast him as a prime mover of the decision to fire Comey…”
That information was based on an unnamed “person close to the White House.”
The influential Drudge Report picked up the Post’s story with a link that read, “DRAMA: DEPUTY AG ‘THREATENED TO RESIGN.'”
The next day, Rosenstein denied it. Asked by a reporter if he was going to resign, he said, “I’m not quitting.” He was then asked if he had threatened to, and said no.
