Donald Trump refused to answer a question from CNN while addressing the press for the first time in almost six months.
Speaking at a news conference from Trump Tower, the president-elect opened the floor to questions from journalists yet shut down a CNN’s senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta after he attempted to pose a question.
Moments before, Trump had condemned BuzzFeed News and CNN for reporting on a leaked dossier containing allegations that Russia holds compromising information about him.
“I think it’s a disgrace that information that was false and fake, and never happened, got released to the public,” he said before referring to BuzzFeed News as “a failing pile of garbage”.
“Since you’re attacking our publication, could you give us a chance to ask a question, Sir?” CNN correspondent Acosta asked Trump, only to be ignored. Acosta called out to the president-elect again who told him to be quiet.
“I’m not going to give you a question because you are fake news,” Trump said to Acosta.
Trump’s refusal to allow the CNN correspondent the chance to talk was met with backlash from much of the public, many of which slated him for his lack of professionalism.
CNN responded to Trump’s accusations the publication was “fake news” shortly after. It said:
“CNN’s decision to publish carefully sourced reporting about the operations of our government is vastly different than Buzzfeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos. The Trump team knows this. They are using Buzzfeed’s decision to deflect from CNN’s reporting, which has been matched by the other major news organizations.
“We are fully confident in our reporting. It represents the core of what the First Amendment protects, informing the people of the inner workings of their government; in this case, briefing materials prepared for President Obama and President-elect Trump last week.
“We made it clear that we were not publishing any of the details of the 35-page document because we have not corroborated the report’s allegations. Given that members of the Trump transition team have so vocally criticized our reporting, we encourage them to identify, specifically, what they believe to be inaccurate.”
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