US President Donald Trump has called for revoking the Pulitzer prizes earned by the New York Times and the Washington Post over their coverage of the so-called Russia probe, out of which Trump appeared unscathed.
“So funny that The New York Times & The Washington Post got a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage (100% NEGATIVE and FAKE!) of Collusion with Russia - And there was No Collusion! So, they were either duped or corrupt? In any event, their prizes should be taken away by the Committee!” Trump tweeted Friday.
The comments came days after special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
The two newspapers received a joint Pulitzer Prize last year for their coverage of the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Trump had, on several occasions, called the special counsel probe a "hoax," a “witch hunt,” or a “scam.”
"We're proud of our Pulitzer-prize winning reporting on Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. Every @nytimes article cited has proven accurate,” the New York Times' communications team tweeted after Trump’s tweet.
According to US Attorney General William Barr, neither Trump nor anyone involved in his presidential campaign conspired with Russia as the intelligence community had assumed in the wake of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump is taking the opportunity to lash out at media giving him a negative coverage.
The president’s son, Don Trump Jr., backed his father on Twitter, asserting that “He’s right... unless they give Pulitzer’s for fiction. #fakenews.”