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President Trump again expressed his distaste for CNN and its chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, when the reporter questioned the president on his handling of the coronavirus during a presser on Wednesday.
Trump took several questions from reporters at the White House on the latest developments from his administration over the response to the spread of the virus, but his interactions with the press quickly ended after Acosta attempted to question the president about concerns over the contradictions that have been made between him and the coronavirus task force.
"Mr. President, what do you say to Americans who are concerned that you're not taking this seriously enough and that some of your statements don't match what your health experts are saying?" Acosta asked.
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"That's CNN. Fake news," Trump pointed at Acosta before dismissing all the reporters from the room.
Trump and Acosta have clashed ever since he took office. In 2018, the White House even attempted to revoke Acosta's press credentials, but a federal judge ruled in CNN's favor and ordered the administration to reinstate his status.
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Last week, the Trump reelection campaign filed a libel lawsuit against CNN for publishing “false and defamatory” statements about seeking Russia’s help in the 2020 election.
"The complaint alleges CNN was aware of the falsity at the time it published them but did so for the intentional purpose of hurting the campaign while misleading its own readers in the process ... the campaign filed this lawsuit against CNN and the preceding suits against The New York Times and The Washington Post to hold the publishers accountable for their reckless false reporting and also to establish the truth,” Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., told Fox News.
Fox News obtained the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, where CNN is located. It states in part that CNN claimed Trump’s campaign “assessed the potential risks and benefits of again seeking Russia’s help in 2020 and has decided to leave that option on the table.”
The complaint said that CNN was well aware the statements were false “because there was an extensive record of statements from the Campaign and the administration expressly disavowing any intention to seek Russian assistance” but promoted the claim anyway.
The complaint said that Trump’s legal team sent CNN a request to retract and apologize last month but CNN executives refused. The Trump campaign now seeks “millions of dollars” through litigation.
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“The Campaign therefore was left with no alternative but to file this lawsuit to: publicly establish the truth, properly inform CNN’s readers and audience (and the rest of the world) of the true facts, and seek appropriate remedies for the harm caused by CNN’s false reporting and failure to retract and apologize for it,” the complaint said.
CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News Brian Flood, Brooke Singman contributed to this report.