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Trump Calls Reporter ‘Sleazy’ For Asking About Veterans’ Donation Delays

By Jayce Wagner
Published on: 05:28 PST, May 31, 2016

In a news conference today, Donald Trump announced the dollar-for-dollar specifics of his highly-scrutinized donations to various veterans’ charities, confirming allegations that Trump raised less than he had initially claimed.

During the news conference, Trump not only came clean about the amount of money raised, he also came out swinging, slamming the media for asking questions about the initially quoted, and inaccurate, figure of $6 million.

“What I don’t want is when I raise millions of dollars, have people say this sleazy guy right over here from ABC, he’s a sleaze in my book – you’re a sleaze because you know the facts and you know the facts well,” said Trump during his lengthy attack on the media this morning.

During the news conference, Donald Trump confirmed that a fundraiser event earlier this year, before the Iowa caucuses, raised around $5.6 million for veterans’ aid groups. Trump also released a detailed accounting of which charities received money from the event. The Republican presidential hopeful had been under increasing media scrutiny after the veterans’ fundraiser, during which he claimed he would donate the “millions” raised during the event to aid various veterans’ groups.

Trump later stated that the event raised $6 million for aid groups, a claim which was questioned by various media outlets.

At Donald Trump’s news conference today, he slammed the press for those questions, specifically an ABC reporter who Trump referred to as a “sleaze” for questioning the real estate billionaire’s accounting of the funds raised.

Trump claims he was treated unfairly and that the press should have been appreciative of his efforts to donate to veterans’ charities, a point which he hammered home during the 40-minute news conference this morning. During the conference, Trump spent much of his time on stage railing against “the media” for bringing to light the fact that he publicly overestimated the amount of money raised by his Iowa fundraiser.

“Instead of being like ‘thank you very much Mr. Trump,’ or ‘Trump did a good job’ everyone said: ‘Who got it? Who got it? Who got it?’ and you make me look very bad. I have never received such bad publicity for doing a good job,” said Donald Trump during the news conference today.

The criticism Trump had received after the fundraiser to benefit veterans all began after the Republican presidential nominee himself stated that he had raised $6 million during the fundraiser. The Trump campaign later claimed the amount was closer to $4.5 million, not counting $1 million which Donald himself had donated.

After the event in Iowa earlier this year, various outlets asked the Trump campaign which aid groups received the purported $6 million and how they were chosen or vetted.

“The press is so dishonest and unfair. The press should be ashamed of themselves. You make me look very bad,” Trump said, reports Talking Points Memo.

ABC News reporter Tom Llamas, who was the subject of Trump’s “sleaze” comment during the news conference, took to Twitter to comment on the event.

According to the Washington Post, Trump went on to slam the media and the “unfair” treatment he believes he’s received.

“I wasn’t looking for credit, but I had no choice but to do this because the press was saying I didn’t raise any money for them,” said Trump.

During the news conference, Donald Trump read off a list of the charities that had received portions of the $5.6 million raised earlier this year, but he did not disclose how those charities were chosen or how they were vetted. Trump claims the vetting process resulted in delays, but as of today, all but one of the charities have thus far received their portion of the $5.6 million.

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

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