CNN’s Tapper on Trump Suing Multiple Media Outlets: ‘This Is Wildly Ridiculous’

TAPPER: “And we should note, Kristen, I don’t want to overstate Trump’s friendliness and genial attitude at this press conference because this weekend ABC News agreed to pay $16 million, including legal fees, to settle defamation lawsuit brought by Trump against the the network and their anchor George Stephanopoulos. And that obviously will not be the end of this campaign against the media, legal campaign against the media. We heard him go after many other news outlets today. Take a listen.”

[Clip starts]

Trump: “I’m going to be bringing one against the people in Iowa, their newspaper.

We’re filing one on 60 Minutes.

We’re involved in one which has been going on for a while and very successfully against Bob Woodward.

We have one, very interestingly, on Pulitzer because reporters at The New York Times, Washington Post, got Pulitzer Prizes for their wonderful, accurate and highly professional reporting on the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.”

[Clip ends]

TAPPER: “We don’t have time to go into all of that, but just to touch base on a couple, one of them is the people of Iowa, The Des Moines Register. That’s because there was a poll that was — that was inaccurate. The one on 60 Minutes is because they didn’t like the editing that had been done to Kamala Harris.”

HOLMES: “The sound bite from Kamala Harris.”

TAPPER: “Yeah. I mean, this is — this is wildly ridiculous.”

HOLMES: “Well, one of the things to remind here is that Donald Trump feels like he won. I mean, this weekend, by having a settlement with ABC, one that many people did not think was going to come to fruition, they thought that this would end up in court or that it would certainly not be a settlement, in which ABC paid $16 million and issued a public apology, which was part of this, has been a situation which has empowered and emboldened Donald Trump. Now, what you’re looking at when you talk about The Des Moines Register, he’s clearly picking things that were personal to him. This was something that really bothered him during the election. He was angry behind the scenes.”

TAPPER: “It was a bad poll. It happens.”

HOLMES: “I’m telling you that this isn’t based on what I believe —“

TAPPER: “Right, I know.”

HOLMES: “— this is based on what Donald Trump is going after his enemies based on what he perceives as slights, including The Des Moines Register, which he believed, he was angry about that poll. We also know that they were angry about the editing when it came to 60 Minutes because they believe it helped Kamala Harris, it helped her answers there. So, clearly now they’re taking that anger and moving it from just talking about it to the court of law, likely because of the fact of what they saw this weekend when they feel like they got a victory.”

TAPPER: “He himself has sat for taped interviews on Fox —“

HOLMES: “He knows how TV works.”

TAPPER: “— that were edited.”

HOLMES: “Well, he knows how television works. I mean, obviously we know — we’ve heard him behind the scenes when he’s done interviews —“

TAPPER: “The Apprentice was edited!”

HOLMES: “— where he says cut this out, or start this at this point, or let me start over. I mean, we know that he has done that because he understands how television works when it’s not live TV. We’ve seen the behind-the-scenes footage. However, this is Donald Trump enacting the way that he feels and his anger in a legal court law.”

TAPPER: “And the fear is that corporate masters of these news organizations will chillingly settle so as to not have it affect their theme parks or whatever. Kristen Holmes and Alayna Treene, thanks to both of you.”