WASHINGTON — Taking a good-cop, bad-cop approach, Donald Trump and his campaign Sunday blasted the media for what they said was unfair news coverage, while running mate Mike Pence offered a more conciliatory tone in defending the Republican presidential nominee.
Trump “speaks his heart and he speaks his mind” and in doing so has drawn attention to important issues, Pence said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“Stay tuned. It’s still early in this campaign,” Pence said, noting that Trump on Monday will detail his vision for “confronting radical Islamic terrorism.”
He offered no details. For much of the last week, the Trump campaign has been responding to his repeated statements that President Obama “founded” the militant Islamic State. Trump later described his remarks as sarcasm, but the episode was the latest to raise questions about the businessman’s temperament and ability to be commander in chief.
On Sunday, Trump took aim at the news media for what he viewed as distorted and biased reporting. He threatened Saturday to ban more news organizations from covering his campaign, and he followed up by tweeting that the “disgusting and corrupt media” was to blame for his trailing Hillary Clinton in polls.
His campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, claimed that news organizations were ignoring substantive aspects of the campaign and had essentially taken sides with Clinton.
“Here was a debate that could have been had,” Manafort said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to trade, energy and other issues laid out in economic speeches by both candidates last week. “Instead, the media chose to take … the Clinton campaign narrative and go on attack on Donald Trump.”
Pence, for his part, has spoken before about trying to get Trump’s bans against reporters lifted. On Sunday, he reiterated his support for the public’s right to know. “And we’ll continue that, we’ll continue to advance that principle.”
Asked whether his role was that of the “cleanup crew,” Pence laughed, and said that “I couldn’t be more honored to be campaigning shoulder to shoulder with a man who I believe is going to be the next president.”
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