Politico: Trump - Josh Earnest 'a foolish guy'

The outburst by Donald Trump follows Josh Earnest making a series of comments critical of the president-elect Thursday. | AP Photo

Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out at Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary who has criticized the president-elect for refusing to accept intelligence that Russia sought to disrupt the election with cyberattacks.

At a rally on his so-called thank you tour in Pennsylvania, Trump called Earnest a “foolish guy” and asserted that “he is so bad, the way he delivers a message.”

“He can deliver a positive message and it sounds bad,” Trump said, seemingly unprompted. “He can say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, today we have totally defeated ISIS,’ and it wouldn’t sound good.”

The outburst follows Earnest making a series of comments critical of the president-elect at Thursday afternoon’s White House press briefing.

Earnest asserted that Trump “obviously knew” during the campaign that Russia “was engaged in malicious cyberactivity that was helping him and hurting” Hillary Clinton’s campaign. That criticism was a response to Trump’s continued questioning of intelligence officials’ conclusions (while experts agree the Russians were very likely behind the hacks into Democratic officials’ emails, which embarrassed the Clinton campaign, whether the cyberattacks were an attempt to disrupt the process or actively help Trump remains disputed).

Earnest had also accused Trump of not taking the threat of Russian interference in the election seriously. “There’s only been one person who’s tried to joke about this. Unfortunately, that person is the president-elect of the United States. This is an extraordinarily serious matter,” he said.

Outside his tangent on Earnest, Trump’s Thursday night rally was largely par for the course. The “thank you” speeches usually consist of his boasting about his upset win and repeating campaign trail pledges to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, limit immigration and stop radical Islamic terrorism.

As usual, though, the main target of Trump’s ire was the press corps that covers him. He repeatedly dismissed the reporters at the back of the rally as “dishonest,” as he did throughout his campaign.

That jeering resonated with rally-goers, it seems: As reporters left, a woman called out, “There goes the fake news,” according to a pool report.