Trump Attacks Whistleblower

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Win McNamee/Getty Images

 

We ran the numbers: There are 3521 news articles covering this topic. 51% (1799) are left leaning, 39% (1356) center, 10% (366) right leaning.

Over the weekend and on Monday, President Trump continued to criticize the whistleblower who authored a complaint alleging that the president inappropriately solicited help from the Ukrainian government and that the White House attempted to conceal records of the call. Over the weekend, Trump tweeted repeatedly about the whistleblower report, calling it “fake,” saying it was “not holding up,” and saying that Congressman Adam Schiff should be investigated for treason.

A centrist broadcast from NPR news focuses on the Trump camp’s response to the whistleblower complaint and the resultant impeachment proceedings. The article notes that Trump’s defense has taken the familiar form of a series of tweets attacking his rivals, saying that “he has tweeted more than 80 times just over the weekend, which is a lot of tweets even by his standards. And some of them were pretty extreme, including saying that a member of Congress should be investigated for treason and suggesting that if he were impeached, it would lead to civil war. That was a tweet of a quote of someone saying that, but the president was still amplifying it.”

A right-leaning article from Fox News focuses on others’ complaints about the whistleblower report, particularly criticism from former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik. On Fox and Friends on Monday, Kerik called the whistleblower a “covert operative” who is participating in an “attempted coup” against the Trump administration with the help of elected officials. Kerik also advanced the narrative, popular among many Trump supporters, that the impeachment proceedings represent Democratic elected officials using any means they can to oust Trump from power.

A left-leaning article from the Washington Post describes Trump’s series of attacks against the whistleblower as a “scorched-earth” strategy for countering the accusations against him. On Monday, Trump said he is trying to find out about the whistleblower; the New York Times has come under criticism for revealing that the whistleblower is a CIA employee who had worked in the White House, increasing the likelihood that they might be identified. The article notes, “As he faces mounting accusations of wrongdoing, Trump is leading his own defense effort, largely from his Twitter account. He is using the kind of bluster and bravado that have come to define his presidency.”


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