Welcome to the Jim Acosta Morning Memo on a JAMM-packed Monday morning after Trump spent his weekend lashing out, and Google spent it selling out. Mapquest your way to Starbucks or Dunkin and let’s jump in.
Never Forget It’s All About ME: Trump has a long history of ugliness around the attacks of 9/11 that we covered this weekend.
This year’s example came courtesy of Maggie Haberman and her colleagues, who broke the news that Trump would be blowing off the 25th anniversary memorial at Ground Zero, in part because he wouldn’t be permitted to give a speech.
President Trump is not planning to attend a ceremony in Manhattan for the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, in part because he wanted to deliver a speech and the annual event has long barred remarks, according to four people with knowledge of the events.
Mr. Trump’s team had conducted advance visits at the site and had initially signaled to officials in New York and in Washington that the president intended to visit the memorial space known as ground zero, two of the people with knowledge of the events said.
The report was deeply sourced and corroborated by CNN’s Alayna Treene (and her two sources), and also detailed other reasons for the decision to speak at the Pentagon instead.
A Coward Lashes Out: Trump flew into a rage and launched an attack on Maggie Haberman that was so despicable, most newscasters refused to repeat it on the air. You can read it here if you care to.
Contained in Trump’s rant was the threat of a lawsuit and a wish to force Haberman to reveal her sources:
(Maggie Haberman) is a PHONY, and The New York Times knows it! It will all be revealed in the lawsuit against them…
If she were ever forced to reveal her “sources,” you will find out they either don’t exist, or didn’t say what she reported.
Hitting Back — With Reality: Hours later, a defiant Haberman responded to Trump’s attacks in an MS NOW hit with pure facts.
We stand by the reporting, and the Times put out a statement explaining that this is based on multiple sources, that we went to the White House, we were quite transparent with them about what we were reporting, including part of the reason why he was not going to New York was because he didn’t want to speak.
And White House did not say anything pushing back on what we were reporting, and then 24 hours later, the president started attacking the piece, you know, so readers can make their own assessment about a denial that comes a day later.
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Welker Whopper: Trump wasn’t done attacking. On Sunday, he lashed out at NBC News anchor Kristen Welker on Truth Social for calling his endorsement record “mixed,” ranting that (TRUMP VOICE) “Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.”
Here’s what Welker (accurately) said:
Welker made the comments at 6:42 AM on a local NBC morning show, which means somebody was up early looking for material.
But here’s a fact-check:
