U.S. President Donald Trump is renewing his attack on the “fake news media” amid the widening controversy surrounding the ouster of his national security adviser and talk of Congress investigations of purported Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election last year.
READ MORE: Trump’s people were in constant contact with Russians during campaign, reports claim
Trump posted a pre-dawn message on his verified Twitter account Wednesday complaining, “The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred.” He continued, “This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to coverup the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign.”
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that members of Trump’s campaign team talked with Russian intelligence in the year leading up to the U.S. presidential election. According to the report, Trump’s associates were repeatedly in contact with intelligence and government officials from Russia around the same time that Trump was openly praising President Vladimir Putin on the campaign trail.
CNN also confirmed the Times report on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Trump also tweeted, “@MSNBC and @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!”
Trump later went on to accuse the Obama administration of being “too soft” on Russia, pointing to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine on President Barack Obama’s watch.
These latest tweet follows a pattern of social media messages that Trump has sent, chastising news organizations both during his campaign for the White House and in the more than three weeks since his inauguration.
– With files from Global News reporter Jesse Ferreras