Spokesperson Doesn’t Deny President Was Enraged
The New York Times is reporting that President Donald Trump exploded in anger when the First Lady’s TV aboard Air Force One was not tuned to Fox News, but to CNN. Trump has reportedly ordered all televisions in the White House and any federal agency he controls to be tuned to Fox News.
In response, the First Lady’s spokesperson says Melania Trump will watch “any channel she wants,” throwing a rebuke directly at the President.
“Grisham told CNN Wednesday everyone should be focusing on the issues the first lady is seeking to highlight, such as neonatal abstinence syndrome, rather than what television channel she’s watching or a tape of her husband discussing a payout to a woman who claims to have had an extramarital affair with him,” CNN reports.
Grisham also blasted the media for not focusing on bullying, one of the First Lady’s pet causes – and one she has done little to combat, especially with her husband.
“Did you know that every 15 minutes a baby is born with NAS? Maybe you’d like to talk about the 160,000 kids who skip school every day for fear of being bullied, or that 280,000 students are physically attacked in schools every month,” Grisham said. “Seems kind of silly to worry about what channel she watches on TV (any channel she wants btw) or if she heard some recording on the news.”
Grisham failed to mention that many of those students who skip school every day do so because President Trump has unleashed and enabled racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and nativist bullying across the country.
The Times article was titled, “Spotting CNN on a TV Aboard Air Force One, Trump Rages Against Reality.”
Many on social media Tuesday night focus on this portion of the Times’ reporting:
“The email, an internal exchange between officials in the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency last Thursday, also called for the ordering of two additional televisions to support Beam, a TiVo-like streaming device, to make sure the president and first lady could both watch TV in their separate hotel rooms when they travel.”
Image by Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù
via Flickr and a CC license