Trump rips ABC News reporter over network’s Syria screw-up
President Donald Trump called on ABC’s chief White House correspondent at Wednesday’s news conference and then proceeded to call out his network for a recent error covering Syria.
During the Q&A portion, Trump selected ABC’s Jonathan Karl, who asked the president about his decision to abandon Kurdish allies in Syria. “Even after all you have seen — ISIS prisoners freed, all the humanitarian disaster — you don’t have any regret for giving Erdogan the greenlight to invade?” Karl asked, referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
While Trump routinely lobs accusations of “fake news” at journalists, the president shot back on Wednesday with a specific screw-up that he recently described as a “big scandal” on Twitter.
“When you ask a question like that, it’s very deceptive, Jon,” Trump said. “It’s almost as deceptive as you showing all of the bombings taking place in Syria and it turned out the bombing you showed on television took place in Kentucky.”
ABC aired video on Sunday on “World News Tonight” and on Monday on “Good Morning America” that it said had appeared to show Turkish attacks on Syria’s border. The video was actually from a Kentucky gun range.
In a Monday statement, ABC News said that it took down the video “immediately after questions were raised about its accuracy” and that it “regrets the error.”
ABC News has not yet provided a full accounting of what happened, and the network offered no additional comment on Wednesday. An ABC News source told POLITICO that the video was provided by a source who claimed to be in a sensitive position at the Syrian border. The network is continuing to investigate the matter.
Trump tweeted on Monday that ABC News “got caught using really gruesome FAKE footage of the Turks bombing in Syria.” And at Wednesday’s news conference, he said the network “owes an apology.”
“You should get your accounts correct,” Trump told Karl. “And you shouldn’t be showing buildings blowing up in Kentucky and saying it’s Syria, because that really is fake news.”
Karl, who also serves as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, told POLITICO he hadn’t expected Trump to bring up the network’s Syria error when calling on him.
Despite Trump’s jabs at his employer, Karl continued to ask the president questions about the Syria pullout and criticism of the move from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is normally one of Trump’s strongest congressional supporters.
