Trump: ‘Degenerate’ WaPo Made Up Barr Press Conference Story That New York Times, ABC Confirmed

President Trump began his Thursday in typical fashion: blasting the press coverage of his now-infamous July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Late Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that, per “people familiar with the matter,” Trump wanted Attorney General William Barr to hold a news conference declaring that the president broke no laws on the call, during which he encouraged Ukraine to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. The reporting was later matched by ABC News and The New York Times. Nonetheless, Trump took to Twitter to deny the allegations—and call the Post “degenerate” and claim its three reporters made up the story. “Never happened, and there were no sources! Bill Barr did not decline my request to talk about Ukraine,” the president posted. “The story was a Fake Washington Post con job with an ‘anonymous’ source that doesn’t exist. Just read the Transcript. The Justice Department already ruled that the call was good.” He added, for unclear reasons, “We don’t have freedom of the press!” The “transcript” of the Trump call was not a verbatim transcript and “omitted crucial words and phrases” that a White House Ukraine expert reportedly fought to have added back in. Instead of a news conference, the Justice Department released a statement ruling that “no further action was warranted” after it evaluated a whistleblower complaint. But at no point did the DOJ refer to the call as “good.”