Donald Trump has berated a reporter in the Oval Office after he asked him a series of questions.
Trump was taking questions from behind his desk when he went on the offensive.
Donald Trump answering questions in the Oval Office. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
MS Now correspondent Jake Traylor had asked about Trump’s taxpayer-funded fund to compensate his supporters prosecuted for their criminal activities backing him – including the January 6 rioters.
“Who are you with?” Trump asked.
“I’m with MS NOW, sir,” Traylor replied.
“MS NOW? What a terrible show — they have the worst people on that channel,” the president said.
Trump interrupted another reporter to continue his rebuke.
“MS NOW — that’s the failed MSDNC, right? They failed, they failed, so they gave it a new name,” he said.
“You know why? Because nobody watched it.”
When Traylor asked another question later in the press conference, Trump lashed out.
Donald Trump snapped at a reporter who asked whether Jeanine Pirro was safe in her job. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
“Don’t ever talk again. You’re fake. You’re one of the worst in the business,” the president said.
Trump was being questioned on Jeanine Pirro, his appointed chief prosecutor in Washington.
On Friday Pirro dropped charges against an Olympian who was accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In requesting the case against former slalom canoeist David Hearn, Pirro conceded the damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by a botched installation.
Hearn had been arrested after he was allegedly seen tearing at the lining of the Reflecting Pool on June 19.
He and others were accused of vandalising the pool in a way that caused the newly installed lining to break.
But when the pool was fully drained, it became apparent that the damage was widespread in a way that could not be committed by vandals.
The US Attorney’s Office accused the Department of Interior of providing “less than fulsome information at the outset of this case”.
Trump has been highly critical of Pirro since she dropped the charges against Hearn.
“I am very disappointed with Jeanine Pirro,” Trump said today.
“She folded like an umbrella.”
Trump has lashed out after vandalism charges were dropped over damage at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. AP Photo/Rahmat Gul
In the last few days the president has been repeatedly speaking about the dismissed vandalism case.
“We weren’t necessarily thrilled with the contractor, but they did a job,” he said.
“Frankly, I think (Pirro) choked because the judge was really vicious.
“When it was completed, it was perfect. But somebody went in and cut it.
“We have photographs or tapes like moving cameras where people are on the side cutting it with a box knife. There was vandalism.”
Pirro was a local judge and county prosecutor in New York but was best-known as a Fox News presenter – one of several Trump has appointed to powerful positions in his administration.
Critics say US attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro is more intent on helping Donald Trump than serve the interests of justice. AP
Trump is considering firing Pirro after she dropped the charges, various news outlets reported over the weekend.
It was fielding a question about Pirro that led to Trump lashing out at Traylor.
It is far from the first time Trump has lashed at reporters when they asked him questions he didn’t like.
In November he berated a reporter on Air Force One who was asking him about his ties to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“Quiet piggy,” he told her.
In January he called another journalist a “terrible person and a terrible reporter” when she asked him about the Epstein files.