Pres. Donald Trump arrived at the podium at 12:55 p.m. ET, and ramped up his attacks on the news media almost immediately. The president started going after CNN in particular at around the 1:30 p.m. ET mark. Here is each instance:
1:34 p.m. ET: “I watch CNN. There is so much anger and hatred and just the hatred. I don’t watch it anymore because it’s not very good — he’s saying no. It’s okay, Jim (Acosta), it’s okay, Jim, you’ll have your chance. I watch others, too, you aren’t the only one so don’t feel bad. But I think it should be straight. I think it would be frankly more interesting. I know how good everyone’s ratings are but i think that actually it would be better.”
1:37 p.m. ET: CNN’s Jim Acosta tells Pres. Trump: “First off, I want to tell you we don’t hate you, I don’t hate you.” Pres. Trump’s response: “Okay, well ask Jeff Zucker how he got his job…we do have a lot of people in here, and your ratings aren’t as good as some of the other people who are waiting here.”
1:40 p.m.: “I mean, think of it. They gave her (Hillary Clinton) the questions. I don’t know a debate or if it’s a town hall, and I feel that it’s inappropriate. If I was Hillary Clinton, I would say ‘I want to turn in CNN for not doing a good job.'”
1:41 p.m. ET is when it really gets interesting. The president calls out “CNN’s show at 10 p.m.” (presumably CNN Tonight with Don Lemon): “I do get good ratings, you have to admit that. I watched this morning a couple of the networks. Fox & Friends in the morning, they are very honorable people. Not because they are good, because they hit me also when I do something wrong. They have the most honest morning show. That’s all I can say. It’s the most honest. But the tone, Jim. If you look at the hatred. Look at your show that goes on at 10 p.m. You just take a look at that show. That is a constant hit on me. The panel is almost always exclusive anti-Trump. The good news is he doesn’t have good ratings, but the panel is almost exclusive anti-Trump. The hatred and venom coming from his mouth. The hatred coming from other people on your network. Now I will say this, I watch it. I see it. I am amazed by it. I just think you’d be a lot better off, I honestly do. The public gets it. When I go to rallies they turn around and start screaming at CNN. They want to throw their placards at CNN. I think you’d do much better by being different. Just take a look, take a look at some of your shows in the morning and the evening. If a guest comes out and says something positive about me, it’s brutal. Now, they’ll take this news conference, I’m actually having a very good time. They’ll take this news conference, now don’t forget, that’s the way I won. I used to give you a news conference every time I made a speech, which was like every day. I won with news conferences and probably speeches, I certainly didn’t win by people listening to you people, that’s for sure.”
1:45 p.m. ET: “When it comes to CNN, it’s story after story after story is bad. I won. I won. And the other thing, chaos. There’s zero chaos. We are running — this is a fun fine-tuned machine. Reince (Priebus) is doing a good job. Half his job is putting out lies by the press.”