President Donald Trump lashed out angrily Sunday morning on Twitter, labeling a report in The New York Times that a White House counsel cooperated with Robert Mueller's investigation as a "fake story" and comparing the probe to the McCarthyism of the 1950s.
The Times reported that White House lawyer Donald McGahn had participated in at least three interviews with the special counsel that stretched to approximately 30 hours.
The president tweeted, "We are now in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt!"
"This is why the Fake News Media has become the Enemy of the People," Trump wrote in another tweet. "So bad for America!"
The Failing New York Times wrote a story that made it seem like the White House Councel had TURNED on the President, when in fact it is just the opposite - & the two Fake reporters knew this. This is why the Fake News Media has become the Enemy of the People. So bad for America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018
Some members of the media are very Angry at the Fake Story in the New York Times. They actually called to complain and apologize - a big step forward. From the day I announced, the Times has been Fake News, and with their disgusting new Board Member, it will only get worse!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018
Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018
McGahn and his lawyer, William A. Burck, said they believed the president was setting them up to take the blame for any possible illegal acts of obstruction, the Times reported.
McCarthy, a U.S. senator from Wisconsin, spent nearly five years attempting to root out Communist sympathizers in the U.S. government. He was censured by the Senate after he attacked the Army during hearings in 1954.
Cox Media Group