White House communications director Steven Cheung tore into a reporter from HuffPost who asked why transcripts for most of the president’s public remarks are not available on the White House website.
“You must be truly f–king stupid if you think we’re not transparent,” Cheung bellowed at White House reporter S.V. Date. “The president regularly does multiple press engagements per day and they are streamed live on multiple platforms.”
Cheung then mocked Date’s left-leaning employer, adding: “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 blowback came after Date penned a piece Thursday claiming that the White House is keeping the “majority of Trump’s remarks secret.”
The story said that President Trump made remarks in 146 appearances in his first 100 days in office, but only 29 of those transcripts, or 20%, have been published.
“Trump aides would not explain their decision to withhold 80% of the transcripts that have been prepared,” Date wrote. “White House communications director Steven Cheung, however, did insult HuffPost for asking the question.”
Date noted that videos of almost all of Trump’s remarks in the aforementioned public settings are available elsewhere online, but those remarks are often not easily searchable — which presumably caused Cheung’s fiery response.
The White House flack doesn’t hold back on journalists. In April, he slammed Daily Beast boss Joanna Coles, who noted Trump’s weight loss during an appearance on CNN.
Commenting on the president’s appearance at Pope Francis’ funeral, Coles said: “Lots of suspicion because he’s lost a lot of weight. Who knows how he’s lost weight? We know that Robert Kennedy Jr., his health minister, doesn’t approve of people taking Ozempic because he thinks it shows a lack of moral power.”
Cheung punched back with an expletive-ridden personal attack.
“CNN had this blithering idiot on @InsidePolitics from The Daily Beast named @JoannaColes making unsubstantiated claims about President Trump’s health,” he wrote. “Joanna is a piece of s–t, clearly suffering from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome rotting her pea-sized brain.”
