Trump issues response to Washington Post correcting story that falsely quoted him

Former President Donald Trump issued a statement Monday in reaction to The Washington Post's correction to a story where the outlet admitted to misquoting him months ago, when they claimed he told a Georgia elections investigator to "find the fraud" in the state during a post-election phone call.

What are the details?

The Post was torched on social media after issuing a correction to a story from January where the newspaper admitted "Trump did not tell investigators to 'find the fraud' or say she would be 'a national hero' if she did so," as they — and several outlet subsequently — had originally reported.

"While I appreciate the Washington Post's correction, which immediately makes the Georgia Witch Hunt a non-story," the former president wrote, "the original story was a Hoax, right from the very beginning."

"I would further appreciate a strong investigation into Fulton County, Georgia, and the Stacey Abrams political machine which, I believe, would totally change the course of the presidential elections in Georgia," he continued.

"Fulton County has not been properly audited for vote or signature verification," Trump asserted. "They only looked at areas of the State where there most likely would be few problems, and even there they found large numbers of mistakes."

He continued, "We are seeking to find and reveal the large-scale election fraud which took place in Georgia," adding, "many residents agree, and their anger caused them not to turn out and vote for two Republican Senators in the January election."

The former president then went after the mainstream media, writing:

"You will notice that establishment media errors, omissions, mistakes, and outright lies always slant one -way—against me and against Republicans. Meanwhile, stories that hurt Democrats or undermine their narratives are buried, ignored, or delayed until they can do the least harm—for example, after an election is over. Look no further than the negative coverage of the vaccine that preceded the election and the overdue celebration of the vaccine once the election had concluded. A strong democracy requires a fair and honest press. This latest media travesty underscores that legacy media outlets should be regarded as political entities—not journalistic enterprises."

Trump concluded his message be writing, "In any event, I thank the Washington Post for the correction."

Anything else?

The Washington Examiner's Becket Adams wrote in a commentary piece Monday, "If you can believe it, the Washington Post's dud of a 'bombshell' isn't even the most scandalous thing about this episode in media malfeasance. No, the most scandalous thing is: Several newsrooms claimed they independently 'confirmed' the original 'scoop' with anonymous sources of their own."

Adams went on to cite NBC News, USA Today, ABC News, CNN, and PBS NewsHour as claiming to "confirm" the now-corrected Post story "through their own anonymous sources."