President Donald Trump continued to rail against the press from his Twitter account on Wednesday, blasting the New York Times for writing "false story after false story" and also criticizing the media's health care coverage.
Trump said the Times does not "call to verify the facts of a story" and was a "Fake News Joke." He added that press outlets were falsely stating he was not "totally engaged" on health care reform and that he actually knows the subject "well."
The failing @nytimes writes false story after false story about me. They don't even call to verify the facts of a story. A Fake News Joke!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2017
Some of the Fake News Media likes to say that I am not totally engaged in healthcare. Wrong, I know the subject well & want victory for U.S.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2017
Trump may have been responding to a Times story Tuesday that depicted him as out of the loop on the GOP's proposed health care bill.
Trump's agenda suffered a setback Tuesday when Senate Republicans had to delay sending their Obamacare overhaul to the floor, as it became clear they did not have the votes to pass it. The Times published a story that said Trump had been "largely on the sidelines as the fate of one of his most important campaign pledges played out."
If Republicans manage to get a deal, the Times wrote, it would not be because of Trump's involvement, adding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) had kept Trump at "polite arm's length" while overseeing negotiations.
In the aftermath of a retracted CNN story about a Trump associate and the Kremlin that led to three employees leaving CNN, Trump and spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders respectively lit into the press on Tuesday. Trump tweeted that multiple mainstream outlets were "fake news" and Sanders went on an extended diatribe against the press at the White House briefing.
Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2017
With ZERO Democrats to help, and a failed, expensive and dangerous ObamaCare as the Dems legacy, the Republican Senators are working hard!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2017