Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway took it to “Good Morning America” host — and former Clinton aide — George Stephanopoulos over the mainstream media breathlessly reporting on a forged memo claiming Trump ordered “golden showers” on a Russian hotel bed the Obamas slept in.
“Not fake news, just fake!” Team #Trump hits back on claims #Russia has compromising material on #DonaldTrump. pic.twitter.com/ZjHssN2uS6
— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) January 11, 2017
Arguing from the premise that the 35-page memo, which was rife with misspellings and incorrect markings, Stephanopoulos claimed that intelligence “officials” told Trump about it in a briefing.
Conway went back at the host, pointing out the document was from “the internet,” and not from the “intelligence community.”
Stephanopoulos then said it “becomes news if the intelligence officials did, indeed, did present this information to the president(-elect).”
“We don’t know that because…nobody is allowed to talk about what occurs in these intelligence briefings,” Conway replied.
“I mean, just to smear the president-elect of the United States we now have intelligence officials divulging information that they are sworn not to divulge. We should all be very concerned about that. I don’t even think this is fake news. I think it’s just fake. I would take the word news right out of it.”
On the forged memo, Wikileaks reported it was “not an intelligence report. Style, facts & dates show no credibility.”
35 page PDF published by Buzzfeed on Trump is not an intelligence report. Style, facts & dates show no credibility.https://t.co/twa8pJMMtP
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 11, 2017
But that didn’t stop mainstream news outlets from running with it and reporting it as “unverified” fact.
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