As Twitchy reported, President Trump demanded — and got — an apology from the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel, who had posted a “phony photo of an empty arena” in Pensacola, Fla., Friday night. Actually, the photo was taken before the event started and the venue filled up.
However, even though Weigel offered an apology for the tweet which he’d already deleted, President Trump continued his Twitter tirade, saying that Weigel should be fired.
.@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
Wow — that escalated quickly. There probably are a lot of people in newsrooms who should be fired, but for a lot worse than this. (We’re looking at you, CNN … and ABC News). What does the Twitter jury think?
https://twitter.com/SethAMandel/status/939635253500698625
Usually I would agree. Here I don't, and let me explain why. I've seen reporters do this constantly, trying to drive a narrative back when both Bush's were President & when McCain & Romney were running.
They KNOW exactly what they are doing, MOST of the time.
— Met My Baby Mama In A DC Strip Club Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) December 9, 2017
Everybody knows if you apologize then you don’t have to suffer any consequences for your actions.
— Paul Dykstra (@Padman4321) December 9, 2017
Savage… https://t.co/Wk4hQpU1Lx
— ??? ????????? ⏳ (@stranahan) December 9, 2017
Magnanimous. https://t.co/I32maPrH6I
— jon gabriel (@exjon) December 9, 2017
Stay classy, Don. https://t.co/SoXSzkFxVA
— John Schindler (@20committee) December 9, 2017
By including Dave Weigel’s @ handle, the president’s statement is inviting followers to gang up on a reporter https://t.co/3C5jKDvFP5
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 9, 2017
How are you spending this wintry Saturday evening? Cup of hot cocoa? Dinner with friends?
This is how the president of the United States is spending his. https://t.co/1zRe9ScrlQ
— Oren Kessler (@OrenKessler) December 9, 2017
The President of the United States has escalated to harassing individual journalists. It's only a matter of time before a journalist gets hurt https://t.co/Ejb9mmkmx1
— Marcel Dirsus (@marceldirsus) December 9, 2017
Dave’s mentions must be a dumpster fire.
Of course, it’s ironic the guy who couldn’t tell the truth if his life depended on it, is calling for people to lose their jobs because of “fake news.” https://t.co/NsSk4PJ4rk
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) December 9, 2017
Trump is melting down before our eyes. https://t.co/TcNbQ4Iee1
— John Iadarola (@johniadarola) December 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/939639142471712768
https://twitter.com/gringostani/status/939636213408866304
Lolz if tweeting out something fake is the standard for getting fired I got some bad news for ya buddy https://t.co/SsJHgcE7nK
— BCC (@ByCommonConsent) December 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/simonhedlin/status/939637786075951111
.@realDonaldTrump routinely tweets and retweets verifiably false and hateful content, but, sure, we'll get upset someone mischaracterized your crowd size. https://t.co/EKcZgsxwom
— Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) December 9, 2017
POTUS attacking an individual reporter (one of the best in the business) who apologized for misidentifying a picture and deleted it. That's not 'fraud' or 'fake.' https://t.co/1R4oW1s89X
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) December 9, 2017
No, @daveweigel shouldn't be fired for making a mistake, and everybody in this business makes mistakes sometimes.
But yes, your mistakes still count against your credibility even after you apologize for them properly.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) December 9, 2017
A head of state publicly calling for a journalist to be fired is a textbook threat to freedom of speech. pic.twitter.com/1NhReH7l0c
— Adam Serwer? (@AdamSerwer) December 9, 2017
The best reporters make errors; @daveweigel is a great reporter who made a mistake and corrected it, only to end up bullied by the president of the United States, who has a lengthy record of false statements and a nonexistent record of correcting them.
— Adam Serwer? (@AdamSerwer) December 9, 2017
Team @daveweigel, now and forever.
— Alyssa Rosenberg (@AlyssaRosenberg) December 9, 2017
.@daveweigel is a very good reporter. He made an error and corrected it. The president is quite familiar with doing the former, not so much the latter.
— Jamie Weinstein (@Jamie_Weinstein) December 10, 2017
Dave Weigel is one of the best reporters in the world.
He made a mistake — in a tweet! — about CROWD SIZE. He admitted it. He apologized for it. And now the President of the United States is trying to get him fired.
Thanks for tackling the important issues, Mr. President. https://t.co/awIKpnHANX
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) December 9, 2017
This tweet is mostly right, but I hate how often journalists think it's not a big deal to screw up on Twitter. https://t.co/gFSKJcYvB5
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) December 10, 2017
https://twitter.com/molratty/status/939653749546606592
Stay tuned …
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional tweets.
* * *
Related:
WaPo writer apologizes to President Trump for posting ‘phony photo of empty arena’