CNN’s Stelter: Is Trump ‘Trying to Impersonate’ Hugo Chavez, Erdogan and Putin?

EXCERPT:

BRIAN STELTER: Hey. I’m Brian Stelter and this is “RELIABLE SOURCES, our weekly look at the story behind the story, of how the media really works and how the news gets made. 

Today, we have a special program for you. 

As President Trump’s war with the media gets even more personal, the president is grappling with Senate Republicans who missed a self- imposed deadline on health care. He’s preparing for a stare-down this week with Russian president Vladimir Putin. But on Twitter, he’s wrestling with us. 

Look at this video from his Twitter account this morning. This is a WWE Wrestlemania video from years ago when Trump used to show up at WWE events. You can see that the CNN logo has been superimposed onto the other fighter’s face. 

Now, this showed up on a Reddit message board days ago. Now, it’s showing up on the president of the United States’ own Twitter feed. 

The early reaction in the last 90 minutes have ranged from: this is juvenile, ridiculous, idiotic, or wait, no, it’s just funny. He’s just having fun. Wait, no, it’s actually scary, dangerous. We’ve heard a wide range of reactions to this. And we have a panel standing by. 

But first, CNN’s response. The strongest statement I’ve seen from CNN or any news outlet this year in response to the president’s attacks. 

Quote: It is a sad day when the president of the United States encourages violence against reporters. Cleary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she said the president had never done so. Instead of preparing for his overseas trip, his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, dealing with North Korea and working on his health care bill, he is instead involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of his office. 

The statement from CNN ends by saying: We will keep doing our jobs. He should start doing his.