Trump aide accuses news media of ‘propaganda’

President Trump’s counterterrorism adviser on Friday denounced media reports about ongoing investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia as “propaganda.”

“It’s not news, it’s not reporting, it’s just propaganda,” deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka said on Fox News’ “Hannity.”

“We have a mission that we had approved by the American people, and we’re executing it.”

Gorka, who before joining the Trump administration was a national security editor for the far-right Breitbart News, has been a vocal critic of the media’s coverage of the Trump administration and has defended the president’s frequent accusations that journalists who cover his administration critically are “fake news.”

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Gorka’s comments follow a particularly tumultuous 10 days for the White House, which has faced numerous controversies in the wake of FBI Director James Comey’s abrupt firing last week.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that Trump divulged highly classified information to visiting Russian officials a day after ousting Comey, and a subsequent New York Times report revealed that the president had asked Comey in February to shut down the FBI’s investigation into fired national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The House and Senate intelligence committees are probing the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Moscow, and the FBI is conducting its own investigation into the matter. Before he was fired, Comey was charged with overseeing that probe.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed a special counsel to lead the FBI investigation on Wednesday – a move Trump has denounced as a “witch hunt” that “hurts our country.”

The Trump administration has long had an antagonistic relationship with members of the press, and Trump has floated in recent days the possibility of ending daily White House press briefings.