President-elect Donald Trump said in his first nationally televised interview since his victory that the news media showed themselves to be a largely inconsequential factor in the election.
“I want to say this gracefully, but I think the press has shown that it’s much weaker than people thought,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that was posted exclusively online Sunday. “Because nobody has ever been hit by press like I have, and I’m here.”
The campaign coverage was overwhelmingly focused on Trump from the primaries through the general election, in no small part because of his unpredictability and, in the final weeks of the campaign, accusations of sexual misconduct from several women.
“You’re obsessed with the press,” CBS’ Lesley Stahl said to Trump in the interview.
“No I’m not. No, I’m not,” he said. “You were the one that brought it up, it wasn’t me.”
After the interview, Stahl said in an online analysis that the election showed that much of the public’s “bitterness toward the press is real, alive and deep.”
