The New York Times said on Wednesday it would not be “deterred by false and inflammatory language” in response to President Donald Trump’s latest claim that the outlet’s coverage of his age was intended to “slander and belittle” him.
The newspaper said its readers deserve “in-depth coverage and regular updates on the health of their elected leaders.” The statement was in response to Trump’s attack on the paper on Tuesday, apparently in response to a November article he published that focused on his declining energy and argued that The Times should “stop publishing because they are a horrific, biased and untrue ‘source’ of information.”
“Mr. Trump welcomes our coverage of his predecessor’s age and health; we are applying the same journalistic scrutiny to his vitality,” spokesperson Nicole Taylor wrote in a statement. “Our reporting is heavily sourced and based on interviews with people close to the president and medical experts. We will not be intimidated by false and inflammatory language that distorts the role of a free press.”
Still, this approach to journalism didn’t seem to resonate with Trump, who again claimed that his cognitive test results showed that few people, “including those who work at the New York Times,” could do well.
“Nonetheless, when it comes to time and work, the New York Times and some others like to pretend that I am ‘slowing down’ and may not be as sharp as before, or in poor health, but they know that is not true and know that I work very hard, probably harder than before,” Trump wrote. “I will know when I ‘slow down,’ but not now! After my physical exam, cognitive exam, and everything else, I actually think it is inflammatory and possibly even treasonous for the New York Times and others to continue to perpetuate false reporting to slander and disparage the ‘President of the United States.’ They are the real enemies of the people, and we should act on them.” “
The Times’s Katie Rogers and Dylan Friedman reported last month that Trump has started his activities later and made fewer public appearances in recent months. They wrote that while “Trump and those around him still talk about him as if he were the Energizer Bunny of presidential politics,” the “reality is much more complicated.”
Hours after the report was published, Trump lashed out at the newspaper, saying Rogers’ writing of the story was “ugly from the inside out” and claiming the paper was “the enemy of the people.”
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