Fox News anchor Julie Banderas on Monday hit back at President Donald Trump, one day after he railed against his favorite news channel, accusing two Fox News journalists of being "less understanding" of his long-promised "wall" along the U.S.-Mexico border than his frequent media targets CNN and NBC.
"Never thought I'd say this but I think @johnrobertsFox and @GillianHTurner @FoxNews have been less understanding of the Wall negotiations than the folks at FAKE NEWS CNN & NBC!" Trump tweeted, referring to the network's chief White House correspondent John Roberts and Washington correspondent Gillian Turner.
Banderas, in response, blasted Trump in a series of tweets Monday, criticizing him for "bullying" and "insulting" her colleagues.
"This is NOT right," she tweeted. "They don't deserve this. No reporter does. They are doing their jobs and reporting the facts."
"Our jobs are not meant to please others. But the office of the @POTUS ought not to be the one lashing out. That's not how this country works," she added. "That's not how Freedom of the Press works."
"Bullying journalists is not Presidential. Period," Banderas concluded.
Trump regularly rails against journalists and attempts to undermine faith in the media by accusing the "fake news" media of acting as the "enemy of the people." Last week, he instructed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders "not to bother" with giving formal press briefings from the podium any longer as he sought to cast blame on the media for the increasingly rare briefings.
"The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the 'podium' much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press," the president tweeted. "I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!"
Under the Trump administration, press briefings have become a rare occurrence and are often marked by heated exchanges between Sanders and the members of the media — and Sanders has been called out for lying by members of the media throughout her tenure in the West Wing.
In response to the president's instructions to stop giving daily press briefings, Olivier Knox, the president of White House Correspondents Association, called the move a "retreat from transparency and accountability" that "sets a terrible precedent."
"Being able to question the press secretary or other senior government officials publicly helps the news media tell Americans what their most powerful representatives are doing in their name," Knox said in a statement at the time.
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