The president of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), of which the News-Press’ Nicholas Benton is a member, issued a forceful statement this morning in a rapid response to accusatory statements by President Trump against news organizations at a press conference in England today.

The statement of WHCA President Margaret Talev is this: “In response to the President lashing out at NBC, CNN and The Sun: Asking smart, tough questions, whether in a presidential press conference or interview, is central to the role a free press plays in a healthy republic. Given that the president took a question from a CNN reporter in his NATO news conference just a day earlier, maybe he was letting off steam today rather than expressing an official stance toward a news organization’s ability to report, but saying a news organization isn’t real doesn’t change the facts and won’t stop us from doing our jobs. We appreciate The Sun for posting the entire audio of their interview so that everyone can hear the president’s remarks for themselves.”