President Trump lashed out Thursday morning at the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe, asking why the panel has yet to look into “Fake News Networks” in the U.S.
“Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up – FAKE!” Trump tweeted.
The president’s tweets come one day after chairman of the committee Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said the panel plans to move forward with the investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign officials during the 2016 presidential election.
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The committee has conducted 100 interviews, held 11 open hearings, and reviewed 100,000 documents related to the matter, Burr said. The chairman acknowledged the committee is still probing possible collusion between Trump associates and the Russians.
“The committee continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion,” Burr said Wednesday. “I’m not going to even discuss initial findings, because we haven’t any. We’ve got a tremendous amount of documents still to go through.”
The president’s suggestion that the committee investigate “Fake News” also comes as he wars with NBC News on Twitter over what he called a fake report about rifts between himself and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. After Tillerson denied the claims, Trump reprised his own criticism Thursday morning.
"Rex Tillerson never threatened to resign. This is Fake News put out by @NBCNews. Low news and reporting standards. No verification from me," Trump tweeted early Thursday.
Facebook and Twitter have become the latest additions to the intel investigation, in both the Senate and House efforts. Last month, Facebook announced it had uncovered $100,000 in fake ad spending tied to Russian operatives during the election, producing almost 3,000 ads which were connected to about hundreds of inauthentic accounts and pages, according to the social media giant.
Facebook noted that the majority of the ads did not reference the election, voting or a particular candidate, but rather amplified divisive social and political messages.
Twitter briefed the Senate Intel committee last week, but the committee’s Ranking Member Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., called the social media company’s response “deeply disappointing.”
The president has previously slammed Facebook and ‘fake news’ on Twitter, accusing media outlets and the social media network of “collusion.”
But he also has questioned Facebook’s claims of evidence of Russian ads, and suggested the Facebook ad controversy was part of the “Russia hoax” dispute.
Meanwhile Thursday morning, the president pivoted his focus to jobs and the economy, tweeting moments later: “Stock Market hits an ALL-TIME high! Unemployment lowest in 16 years! Business and manufacturing enthusiasm at highest level in decades!”
