‘Fake news is not essential,’ Trump tweets as video shows protesters berating reporter
President Donald Trump shared a tweet Friday night showing anti-shutdown protesters scolding a TV reporter from Long Island, New York.
“Fake news is not essential,” tweeted Trump in all caps, quoting a chant that broke out against News 12 reporter Kevin Vesey.
Video shared by Vesey Thursday afternoon shows dozens of protesters in Commack, New York. The protest was against the state’s stay-at-home coronavirus orders, News 12 reported.
Protesters shouted “You are the enemy of the people,” “Go home, you’re fake news,” and “You’re the virus” at Vesey, video Trump retweeted shows. One man is shown giving the local TV reporter a pair of middle fingers.
The crowd of protesters then started a “Fake news is not essential” chant, which Trump later tweeted while sharing Vesey’s video. Many of the protesters were wearing Trump apparel and waving flags for his reelection campaign.
“The level of anger directed at the media from these protesters was alarming,” Vesey tweeted. “As always, I will tell a fair and unbiased story today.”
The protest was organized by a group called the Setauket Patriots, which according to its Facebook page is “a local conservative group that supports Donald J. Trump.
The group apologized to Vesey Thursday night.
“We can tell you that the few who decided to harass you and try to prevent you from doing you’re job are not members or affiliated with the Setauket Patriots group in any way, shape or form,” the group said on Facebook. “We were looking forward to you giving us fair coverage with what you documented when we first arrived. But as with all mass rally events, you will always get a few idiots to disrupt an otherwise peaceful, pleasant demonstration and they should have been removed by police.”
Vesey’s report from the protest can be found on News 12’s website.
He later tweeted he was insulted and berated. “I was practically chased by people who refused to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic,” he tweeted
Katie Couric was among the nationally-known journalists who came to the defense of Vesey.
Trump tweeted the video a second time Saturday morning. “People can’t get enough of this. Great people!” said the president.
His first tweet sharing the video received more than 100,000 ‘likes’ in around 12 hours.
This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 10:37 AM with the headline "‘Fake news is not essential,’ Trump tweets as video shows protesters berating reporter."