Trump bashes news anchors in renewed attack on media

The back-and-forth underscored a particularly bad week between the Trump administration and US media.

Washington, June 30: The recent feud between the White House and mainstream US media escalated after US President Trump went after two news anchors of a major US news outlet on Twitter.

"I heard poorly rated Morning Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago three nights in a row around New Year's Eve and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!" Trump said in two consecutive tweets on Thursday.

The venomous words were levied against Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who host a morning news show at major news outlet MSNBC, Xinhua news agency reported.

Brzezinski, daughter of late US strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Scarborough, a former Congressman, defended Trump in the early days of his presidency, but the relationship has since soured.

"CNN has more integrity on its worst day than Donald Trump has on his best," Scarborough said in a tweet.

"It's a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying, and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job," a MSNBC spokesman said in response to Trump's tweets.

The back-and-forth underscored a particularly bad week between the Trump administration and US media.

CNN published a story on June 22 drawing a link between a Russian investment fund and a member of Trump's campaign, but retracted the story a day later citing a violation of editorial procedures. CNN has since apologized.

Three veteran journalists resigned Monday in the wake of the retracted story, prompting Trump to denounce CNN for making "fake news".

IANS