NYT Fires Back After Trump Berates Reporter: ‘Pattern of Answering Fair Questions with Inaccurate Attacks’

The New York Times fired back at President Donald Trump after he berated one of their reporters during a press conference on Monday, calling it part of a “pattern of answering fair questions with inaccurate attacks.”

The incident in question occurred during a press briefing the president held to discuss the latest developments in Iran. Times Zolan Kanno-Youngs asked Trump about a Truth Social post he wrote early on Easter Sunday morning with a profanity-laced demand for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to strike Iran’s bridges and power plants if the strait stayed closed.

Wrote Trump:

Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President Donald J. Trump.

Numerous international legal experts have called out Trump’s post for threatening to strike civilian infrastructure, which would be a war crime, and the post was criticized by commentators across the political spectrum.

Monday, Kanno-Youngs asked Trump about the post and the criticism such strikes would “violate the Geneva Conventions and international law,” when the president cut him off, demanding to know what media outlet he was with.

When Kanno-Youngs answered him, Trump retorted that the Times was “failing, failing, circulation way down at The New York Times,” and repeatedly interrupted the reporter until finally launching into a rant about the paper:

Quiet, quiet, quiet. You no longer have credibility at The New York Times because The New York Times said, “Oh, Trump won’t win the election,” and I won in a landslide, I won every swing state. New York Times said, “Oh, Trump won’t win the election.” New York Times has no credibility. The credibility they have is it used to be all the news that’s fit to print. A great — the old “Gray Lady,” it was great. But they’re running on past fumes, and you can’t keep doing that. You have to be able to give the correct news and people like you, who I know, are fake. You’re fake!

The Times’s communications department responded to the president on Monday evening, posting a statement on social media.

The statement, from Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander, said:

President Trump’s derisive comments to a New York Times reporter today are the latest example in his pattern of answering fair questions with inaccurate attacks. Contrary to the president’s false claims, our extensive reporting and polling during the 2024 presidential campaign captured the race in full, including his advantages. Mr. Trump himself celebrated this polling and reporting numerous times.

We ask questions of elected leaders to hold them accountable to the public they serve. Our entire White House team — including the talented journalist who posed questions to Mr. Trump today — reports with the same rigor and scrutiny on all who hold the office.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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