President Donald Trump invited top establishment media news members to lunch prior to his State of the Union address on Tuesday, the White House confirmed to Breitbart News.
The guest list included CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and David Muir, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie and Lester Holt, CBS’s Margaret Brennan, PBS’s Judy Woodruff, Fox News’ Chris Wallace and Martha MacCallum, CBN News’ David Brody, and C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, according to reports.
Presidents traditionally host this off-the-record lunch to give news anchors a preview of what to expect in the speech.
It was unclear whether the president would continue the tradition after someone leaked embarrassing information to the New York Times after his prime-time address on the need for a wall on the southern border in January.
“Who would believe how bad it has gotten with the mainstream media, which has gone totally bonkers!” Trump wrote on Twitter after the leak.
The president continues to brand NBC and CNN as “fake news” and “very fake news” but still gives them access.
“NBC and MSNBC are going Crazy,” he wrote in January. “They report stories, purposely, the exact opposite of the facts. They are truly the Opposition Party working with the Dems. May even be worse than Fake News CNN, if that is possible!”