Congressman: Washington Post ‘Is Just Fake News’

Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) blasted the mainstream media for “getting a free ride” to report inaccurately and with blatant bias in the aftermath of the contentious 2016 election season during an interview Wednesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

Brat, who held a raucous town hall Tuesday evening facing off with organized liberal hecklers, said that he enjoyed the sparring and the chance to connect with his constituents, nevertheless. But the “biggest shocker” of the town hall, he said, was “reading the press accounts this morning.”

“We’re supposed to have balanced news coverage on the news page, and I don’t think they can show you anyone on any New York Times, Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post — anyone that voted for Trump.”

“Politico — I fell off my chair. They did a great job of reporting on what actually happened,” Brat told Ingraham. “But The Washington Post, on the other hand, is just fake news. Oh my word.”

Saying that “the press needs to start interviewing the press people,” the Virginia congressman said there is no excuse for a country split “50-50” on Republican and Democratic lines to field a press that is “99 percent” unabashedly liberal.

“They’re getting a free ride. And I’ve asked the editorial boards in the papers, ‘Do you have anyone who’s a writer on your staff that’s a writer who voted for Trump?’ And it’s like a faculty lounge, right? It’s like 99 percent, ‘No,’ if any,” Brat lamented.

“I mean, this is shocking,” Brat continued. “We’re supposed to have balanced news coverage on the news page, and I don’t think they can show you anyone on any New York Times, Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post — anyone that voted for Trump. No one, when the nation’s 50-50.”

Saying that all he wanted was “some context” in reporters’ fact-based coverage — instead of merely one targeted “hit” after another — Brat rebuked the media for giving mediocre or nonexistent coverage to the important issues facing Americans across the country.

“But all I want is some context, and the reporters, they just hit you — hit, hit, hit, hit,” Brat told Ingraham. “Like on Obamacare, I said last night … it’s broken, and there’s no context given. So the car’s in the ditch. We’ve got to fix it now, and it’s like the press acts like we broke it, right? The system of Obamacare failed on its own weight. Everyone knows it, but there’s no reporting going on. And that was the fundamental issue in the room last night.”

While accusing the Left of having “no agenda” to defend in all its belligerency against the Right, Brat called on Republicans to rally together to fulfill the promise they made to the American people: to repeal and replace Obamacare.

“The House already voted for a full repeal on the record. The Senate voted for a full repeal,” Brat said. “But there’s no doubt that’s the promise Trump made. We all made it. We voted on it. And the Dems are very clever. They’re starting to put pressure on everybody.”

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If the Senate continues to stall and the Republicans balk, Brat said, “We’re all done.”

Saying that the “hold-up” is happening because the Senate is simply “playing with political fear right now,” Brat noted that many of the more moderate Republicans and Democrats “want to make sure we have a replace that covers everybody” before Obamacare is completely discarded. Even in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” agenda, Brat said that “we don’t know exactly what’s coming.”

“It’s all politics. It’s not policy. We have tons of good policy,” Brat said.

“But its the politics of the 18 million” who will be left uninsured if Obamacare is removed,” Brat added. “And how do you make sure we have a good fix for the 18 million? That’s the question. And we have plenty of answers to that.”