CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Tuesday cited a three-month-old tweet by President Trump to refute his claim at the time that the media were reporting “fake news” about him firing outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon – FAKE NEWS!” Trump wrote in a tweet he posted on Dec. 1 last year. “He’s not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!”
The tweet was in response to reports at the time that Trump may fire Tillerson or that he was going to resign.
Tillerson went on in his role for another three months and it wasn’t until Tuesday that Trump announced he was replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
But Tapper said Trump’s tweet from December showed him to be dishonest in his criticism of the media.
“Once again we see the president’s definition of ‘fake news’ — accurate news the president doesn’t like being reported,” Tapper wrote Tuesday, pointing to Trump’s tweet from three months ago. “The Tillerson departure has been in the works for months.”
Once again we see the president’s definition of “fake news” — accurate news the president doesn’t like being reported. The Tillerson departure has been in the works for months. https://t.co/xXpBS0Fiob
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 13, 2018
