As his verbal battle with the liberal American mainstream media continues to rage, President Donald Trump has sought to blame the ‘fake media’ and the ‘illegal’ intelligence leaks for the downfall of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned his key post on Monday night.
Without alluding to the fact that he himself had sought and got Flynn’s resignation after media reports on his contacts with the Russian Ambassador, Trump on Wednesday called the former general ‘a wonderful man’ who was treated ‘very unfairly’ by the media.
“I think he’s been treated very, very unfairly by the media — as I call it, the fake media, in many cases,” Trump said at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding: “I think it’s really a sad thing he was treated so badly.”
Additionally, Trump came down hard on the intelligence leaks that have been roiling his less-than-a-month old administration. Calling the leaks a “criminal act”, he commented: “It’s been going on for a long time — before me. But now it’s really going on, and people are trying to cover up for a terrible loss that the Democrats had under Hillary Clinton.”
“I think it’s very, very unfair what’s happened to General Flynn, the way he was treated, and the documents and papers that were illegally -- I stress that -- illegally leaked. Very, very unfair,” he said.
Trump, against the backdrop of the continuing leaks, is now reported to be planning to assign a New York billionaire to lead a broad review of American intelligence agencies.
Curiously enough, this reported plan was reported by none else than one of Trump’s prime media targets, The New York Times, citing unnamed administration officials.
Trump is reportedly tapping a fellow New York billionaire, Stephen A. Feinberg, a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, for the review – a move which, according to the Times, is being resisted by the intelligence community as it reportedly fears that the exercise could curtail their independence and reduce the flow of information contradicting the President’s worldview.
Trump’s comments on Flynn’s departure seemed to fly in the face of what his Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Tuesday, who said the President obtained the NSA’s resignation for misleading Vice President Mike Pence over his phone conversations with the Russian envoy. Spicer went on to say that Flynn had to go because of an “eroding level of trust” and not for having committed any illegal act.
At his news conference, Trump refused to take questions from a CNN reporter who sought his comments on reports that several of his campaign aides and other associates were in frequent contact with Russian intelligence officials prior to the November presidential election.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats have stepped up their demand for an independent investigation into Trump’s Russia ties. Urging the Republicans to join them, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said: “This is a moment for Republicans to put country ahead of party.”
Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, however, pushed back, saying the existing congressional committees will continue their investigations into allegations of Russian interference in the presidential election.
House Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, meanwhile, said he has sent a letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general urging it to investigate the leaks that led to Flynn’s removal.