Twitter Is Rallying Behind Black Female Journalists After Trump’s ‘Loser’ Comment
People on social media are shedding light on the important work by black female reporters after the president called journalist April Ryan a “loser” and insulted a string of other black women this week.
During a press conference on Friday, President Donald Trump targeted Ryan while answering a question about CNN’s Jim Acosta, whose White House credentials were revoked after his heated exchange with Trump on Wednesday.
“The same thing with April Ryan, I watch her get up, I mean, you talk about somebody that’s a loser, she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing,” Trump said.
Brian Stelter
✔@brianstelter
The White House is a “very sacred place to me,” the president said. He called for respect… But then he insulted at least three reporters. Here’s how @AprilDRyan responded right afterward.
“She gets publicity and then she gets a pay raise, or she gets a contract with – I think CNN – but she’s very nasty, and she shouldn’t be,” Trump said of Ryan, a 21-year veteran White House reporter.
Stephanie Ruhle
✔@SRuhle
I am so sorry you have to endure this
Your friends, fans & family are proud to know you#togetherwerise
Ryan has since responded to the president’s remarks.
“Those words are terrible from a sitting United States president, versus someone who has been covering presidents before he came, and probably after he leaves,” she said on CNN.
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She also addressed how Trump told her to “sit down” on Wednesday as she attempted to ask questions about voter suppression.
“When I stood up, in his response, he tells me to ‘sit down,’ in a condescending, very ugly matter,” Ryan said. “I am proud to work for CNN, I have been working in this business for 21 years.”
Ryan isn’t the only black female journalist Trump has derided this week.
Keith Boykin
✔@keithboykin
And Trump today attacked another black reporter, Abby Phillip: “What a stupid question that is,” he says to her.
On Friday, the president lambasted CNN White House correspondent Abby D. Phillip after she questioned him about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe after the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general.
“What a stupid question that is,” Trump said. “What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot, you ask a lot of stupid questions.”
CNN has since responded in a statement, writing that Phillip, in fact, “asked the most pertinent question of the day.”
CNN Communications
✔@CNNPR
Statement: @abbydphillip did not ask a “stupid” question today at the White House. In fact, she asked the most pertinent question of the day. The @realDonaldTrump’s personal insults are nothing new. And never surprising.
On Wednesday, Trump accused Yamiche Alcindor, PBS NewsHour White House correspondent, of asking a “racist question” when she inquired about the public perception that he was “emboldening white nationalists” on the campaign trail.
“That’s such a racist question,” Trump responded.
“I saw someone who I think was very very frustrated and very very angry that I was bringing up the fact that some people think he was emboldening white nationalists,” Alcindor said on “Hardball With Chris Matthews” on Wednesday.
Yamiche Alcindor
✔@Yamiche
I’m simply asking the questions the public wants to know.
CSPAN
✔@cspan
President Trump to @Yamiche: “That’s a racist question.”
Yvette D. Clarke
✔@RepYvetteClarke
45 is finishing off another week attacking Black women journalists. When will it end? @AprilDRyan @abbydphillip and @Yamiche are brilliant, respectful reporters who are committed to providing the American people with the truth, unlike the President.
Keith Boykin
✔@keithboykin
And Trump today attacked another black reporter, Abby Phillip: “What a stupid question that is,” he says to her.
Trump has harshly criticized journalists across the board this week – he called Acosta a “rude, terrible person” and said he was not smart, and he also mocked foreign reporters for their accents. But many on social media pointed out that Trump has a history of questioning black people’s intelligence.
Kevin Liptak
✔@Kevinliptakcnn
In the last two days, Trump has attacked Mia Love, Michelle Obama, and three experienced black female White House correspondents.
Sheila Jackson Lee
✔@JacksonLeeTX18
.@AprilDRyan & @abbydphillip & @Yamiche are 3 of the finest reporters in the @whca and custodians of the #FirstAmendment – dismissing them or their questions as dumb, racist or stupid says more about @realDonaldTrump and his #dogwhistle racism than it does about these fine women.
Jay Scott Smith
✔@JayScottSmith
The list of Trump’s racist insults of black people is starting to look like that photo of the #Browns jersey and all the QBs they’ve started since 1999
Keith Boykin
✔@keithboykin
Trump On Black People:
April Ryan: loser, nasty
Michelle Obama: just selling a book
Barack Obama: Kenyan
Maxine Waters: low IQ
LeBron James: dumb
Don Lemon: dumb
black countries: shitholes
black athletes: SOBs
Black tenants: unwelcome
Black workers: lazy
Central Park 5: guilty https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1060913651962572800 …
The National Association of Black Journalists, which also called for Acosta’s White House credentials to be reinstated on Thursday, celebrated Ryan, Phillip and Alcindor on Twitter.
NABJ President Sarah Glover called them among the “finest reporters covering the White House.”
Sarah Glover
✔@sarah4nabj
.@AprilDRyan, @abbydphillip, @Yamiche – among finest reporters covering the White House, plus April on the beat for decades. @realDonaldTrump‘s vitriol lodged against them, @Acosta, @PeterAlexander is unacceptable.
Mr. President, professionalism please. Abby is brilliant btw.
Valerie Jarrett
✔@ValerieJarrett
So right, @abbydphillip! @AprilDRyan is a professional, conscientious reporter who does her homework and respectfully asks tough questions. That is the job, and she has done it honorably, covering presidents of both parties as a White House correspondent since 1997.
Abby D. Phillip
✔@abbydphillip
.@AprilDRyan is on CNN right now defending her many credentials as a White House correspondent. She has covered Republicans and Democrats and has had good working relationships with presidents of both parties. She is not a “loser.”
