I’m not thrilled that Donald Trump has renewed his attack on the “corrupt media.”
Fresh off his $15-million victory over ABC and George Stephanopoulos, Trump yesterday sued the Des Moines Register and gold-standard pollster Ann Selzer over a bad survey. She projected him losing by 4 points, and he won the state by 13 points. He called this “brazen election interference.”
Trump is also pursuing legal action against CBS for the “60 Minutes” blunder in substituting a crisper Kamala Harris response to a different question than was asked. But the network can argue that this was normal television editing.
Trump is unlikely to win those suits, but he doesn’t care. Just putting his perceived opponents through the ordeal and considerable expense of defending themselves is reward enough.
A KINDER, GENTLER TRUMP? PRESIDENT-ELECT TAKING A MORE MODERATE STANCE
Most legal experts say ABC could have won its suit, involving Stephanopoulos’ repeatedly saying Trump was found liable for “rape,” as opposed to “sexual abuse,” in the E. Jean Carroll suit, because of the malice standard for a public figure. Trump would have to prove the network knowingly showed reckless disregard for the truth. But ABC would have endured the embarrassment of turning over emails, texts and cell-phone records.
What surprised me, though, was that the president-elect shifted to attack mode just days after saying he had “tamed” the press and was getting better coverage. So much for the cease-fire.
But some of Trump’s more positive aspects were on display during the hourlong presser, a seriousness of purpose that I saw in our New York interview two weeks before the election.
Following his $16 million legal victory over ABC, President-elect Trump appears to once again have the so-called “corrupt media” in his crosshairs. (Getty Images)
I’ve known Donald Trump for more than three decades, interviewed him twice this year, and now that we’re done with the sometimes incendiary rhetoric of the campaign, he…
