Donald Trump on Thursday accused the owner of the Washington Post of using the paper as a weapon to attack him and shield his own business interests.
When asked by Fox News’ Sean Hannity what his thoughts are on the Washington Post assigning 20 reporters to go after him, the presumed Republican nominee said the owner, Jeff Bezos, was using it as a “political instrument.”
“Every hour we’re getting calls from reporters from the Washington Post asking ridiculous questions and I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos, who controls Amazon,” Trump said during the Thursday night interview.
Bezos and Amazon are “getting away with murder, tax-wise,” Trump explained. “He’s using the Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don’t tax Amazon like they should be taxed.”
Bezos bought the Post in 2013 for $250 million. And the paper has had an antitrust issue since then, Trump alleged.
“Amazon is controlling so much of what they’re doing,” he said. “And what they’ve done is he bought this paper for practically nothing and he’s using that as a tool for political power against me and against people and I’ll tell you what, we can’t let him get away with it.”
“He’s using the Washington Post, which is peanuts, he’s using that for political purposes to save Amazon in terms of taxes and in terms of antitrust,” Trump reiterated. He added of Bezos, “He’s using that as a political instrument to try and stop anti-trust, which he thinks I believe he’s anti-trust.”
On Wednesday, the Washington Examiner reported on comments the Post’s Bob Woodward made at a realtor trade association conference in Washington, D.C., revealing 20 staffers had been assigned to report on Trump.
“There’s a lot we don’t know,” he said. “We have 20 people working on Trump, we’re going to do a book, we’re doing articles about every phase of his life.”
The Post later pledged to spend the same amount of time and effort on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
