US President Donald Trump on Saturday alleged that the mainstream media has lost its credibility, a day after an investigative anti-Trump story published by a major online American publication turned out be wrong.
A report published by online portal BuzzFeed had reported that Trump directed Michael Cohen, who was his attorney, to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project and that Cohen told special counsel Robert Mueller that the US president personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project.
"It hurts me to say it. But mainstream media has truly lost its credibility," Trump told reporters at the White House a day after BuzzFeed's story on his Russian connections and 2016 US presidential elections turned out to be false.
"It was a total phony story, and I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement," Trump said as he praised Muller for issuing a clarification on the story.
Muller, a former FBI director is currently investigating the allegations of Russian interference into the 2016 US presidential elections and the links, if any, with the Trump campaign.
Trump said the Buzzfeed piece was a "disgrace" to the country and journalism.
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"I think it's going to take a long time for the mainstream media to recover its credibility," he said.
While talking to reporters, Trump also insisted on bringing back US troops from Syria, asserting that they have achieved the objective of defeating the ISIS.
"At some point, you want to bring our people back home...We have done a very (good job in defeating the ISIS)...we are down to 99 per cent...and we are hitting the rest of it very very powerfully over the last three weeks," he claimed.