Washington, March 31 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has hit out at “fake news media” and the “radical left” for allegedly conducting a biased coverage of messages leaked from a Signal group chat, where US officials had discussed strikes on Iran-backed Houthi targets in Yemen.
Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, in an interview with NBC News earlier on Sunday, spoke about the Signal chat controversy and said, “The conversation should be about why did the Biden administration not do anything in the last two years, instead of this Signal chat. There was no classified information given out, it was a thoughtful conversation, and the attack was extremely successful.”
Following this statement, Donald Trump, in a post on Sunday on Truth Social, his own social media platform, praised the Senator for his response, “A GREAT job by Senator Markwayne Mullin on beating back Kristen Welker’s, and the the Radical Left’s Witch Hunt, on the never ending Signal story. They just don’t stop – Over and over they go!”
He added, “Meet the Fake Press should instead explain how successful the attack was, and how Sleepy Joe Biden should have done it YEARS AGO. This story and narrative is so old and boring, but only used because we are having the most successful “First One Hundred Presidential Days” in the history of America, and they can’t find anything else to talk about.”
Trump also slammed NBC News in the post saying, “The Fake News Media has the lowest Approval Ratings in history, and for good reason. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
President Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would not fire anyone involved in a group chat that inadvertently disclosed plans for airstrikes on Yemen to a journalist.
In a wide-ranging interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, Trump pushed back on reports that some in his circle had encouraged him to fire Michael Waltz, the National Security Advisor (NSA).
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Trump had spent much of the past week consulting with aides about whether he should fire Waltz amid mounting fallout from the episode.
But Trump told Welker that he still had confidence in Waltz and in Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, and he continued to downplay the seriousness of the incident.
“I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” the US President said.
Controversy erupted after NSA Waltz accidentally added the Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic magazine to a Signal group chat discussing details of US strikes aimed at Houthi targets in Yemen.
The group chat, consisted of high profile individuals from the Trump administration, such as Defence Secretary Hegseth and Vice-President J.D. Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard.
It including timings of strikes on Yemen, the type of planes being issued, as well as conversations about US “being the only country capable” of conducting such strikes.
The Atlantic published the actual transcript of US attack plans, however, the Trump administration has maintained that none of the information shared was sensitive.
–IANS
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