As the body of the late Sen. John McCain arrived in Washington, D.C. to lie in state, President Trump took to the road to deliver remarks at a campaign rally in Indiana, carried live on Fox News.
Trump, without mentioning McCain, immediately went on the attack against the news media, attacking CNN and NBC, calling NBC “worse than CNN.”
He also went after a New York Times reporter over coverage of his past crowd size, saying the reporter, whom he did not mention by name, “doesn’t have a clue.”
“She made the statement that ‘President Trump was disappointed to see some empty chairs.’ Yeah, they were going to the bathroom maybe. ‘And he was so disappointed at the tone in the room.’ ‘We left there saying that was amazing.’”
“These are just dishonest, terrible people,” Trump said.
Trump’s barbs on Thursday night came as he launched a series of sustained attacks on news outlets this week, focusing on top executives at CNN and NBC while singling out multiple reporters over the past week.
Indiana Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, who calls himself a loyal ally of Trump, is challenging Sen. Joe Donnelly (D) in November.