川普总统星期二晚上对媒体进行了长时间的严厉批评。他把记者与叛徒相提并论，称他们是“不喜欢我们国家的坏人。”
在凤凰城会议中心举行的政治集会上，总统重述了他在维吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔市8月12日发生致命冲突后发表的谴责新纳粹分子和三K党的声明。但他省略了他在指责“双方”对暴力均负有责任时所使用的最具争议的言辞。
川普还指责媒体没有报道他的评论。他说：“我说种族主义是邪恶的，他们报道了吗？”人群大声回应说：“没有！”
川普宣告说： “我是一个希望说实话的人。我是一个诚实的人。”
亚利桑那州的两位共和党参议员都与总统发生过冲突，他们没有参加这次集会。川普未点名地批评了麦凯恩和弗雷克。
在去年的大选中，川普在这个西部州以高出3.5%的选票击败了民主党竞选对手希拉里.克林顿。凤凰城市中心吸引了成千上万名川普的支持者和抗议者。为了避免出现暴力活动，安全部队采取了严密的预防措施。
星期二在亚利桑那州的活动是川普为2020年竞选连任在8个月中所举行的第八次集会。
President Donald Trump went on an extended tirade against the media on Tuesday evening, equating reporters with traitors calling them “bad people who “don’t like our country.”
During a political rally in the Phoenix Convention Center, the president recited previous statements he made criticizing neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan following the fatal August 12 clash in Charlottesville, Virginia. But Trump omitted his most controversial words he used to blame the violence “on both sides.”
Trump also accused the media of not reporting his comments.
“Did they report I said racism is evil?”
“No!,” the crowd loudly replied.
“I’m a person who wants to tell the truth,” Trump declared. “I’m an honest person.”
Arizona’s two Republican U.S. senators, who have both clashed with the president, skipped the event. Trump criticized both John McCain and Jeff Flake without mentioning their names.
Trump’s presence in the Western state, where he beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by 3.5 percent in last year’s presidential election, drew tens of thousands of his supporters and protesters to downtown Phoenix, and intense precautions by security forces hoping to prevent violence.
Tuesday’s event in Arizona was Trump’s eighth rally in eight months for his 2020 re-election campaign.