President Donald Trump fired off a flurry of tweets Wednesday—nine in the space of an hour or so—about his firing of FBI director James Comey and news media reports about it, using social media to attack his critics and support his move.
Trump tweeted as he came under scrutiny for firing Comey while the FBI director was leading an investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Trump cited a Drudge Report story about scandals on Comey's watch, saying "when things calm down, they will thank me" for firing him.
He said he had watched Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) talk about Comey but called the senator's news show appearances a "joke" and took three connected tweets to complete an attack on him, saying Blumenthal should be the one investigated (for statements he had once made about service in the military during the Vietnam War).
Trump wrapped up his Twitter tirade with a tweet aimed at a favorite target, CNN: "The Roger Stone report on @CNN is false - Fake News. Have not spoken to Roger in a long time - had nothing to do with my decision."
Trump has taken to calling negative stories from outlets including CNN, The New York Times and network news operations as "fake news," a compound word Webster's is currently monitoring and defines as "news ('material reported in a newspaper or news periodical or on a newscast') that is fake ('false, counterfeit')."
