White House Communications Director Steven Cheung slapped down a reporter who asked why transcripts of many of President Donald Trump’s public statements are not on the government website.
HuffPost White House Correspondent S.V. Date wrote that he had asked the White House for comment about why transcripts of only 29 Trump speeches since retaking office are on the website.
“Trump aides would not explain their decision to withhold 80% of the transcripts that have been prepared,” Date asserted. “White House communications director Steven Cheung, however, did insult HuffPost for asking the question.”
Cheung replied by telling Date that he is likely suffering from Trump Derrangement Syndrome.
He wrote:
“You must be truly f-cking stupid if you think we’re not transparent. The president regularly does multiple press engagements per day and they are streamed live on multiple platforms. We’ve even granted low-level outlets like HuffPo [sic] additional access to events, because we’re so transparent. For anyone to think otherwise proves they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Stop beclowning yourself.”
The comms director told Date to make sure he published the statement in full.
Date complained that while the speeches are all readily available, it is hard for him to have to put in the work and search them.
“While it is true that videos of nearly all of Trump’s public remarks are available on C-SPAN, YouTube or other websites, they are not easily searchable by topic or keyword. There are private firms that transcribe his words, but they are not comprehensive and not well-known to the public,” Date wrote.
