Trump avoids questions on Mike Flynn during press conference

Much of the national news media’s attention in recent days has been centered on Flynn after it was reported that he, contrary to what other White House officials have said, had contact with top members of the Russian government related to sanctions currently in place by the U.S.

Trump and Trudeau took two questions each at the joint conference on Monday but, as some reporters pointed out after it was over, Trump did not call on major news outlets that would have likely asked him about Flynn.

Instead, Trump called on a reporter from the conservative Daily Caller website and a reporter from Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns several local news stations.

The Daily Caller reporter asked Trump what he considered to be the biggest national security threat. Trump replied it was North Korea.

Reporters from news organizations that got shut out fumed afterward and accused Trump of deliberately avoiding questions about the big topic of the day.

Jennifer Griffen, Fox News’s national security correspondent, reacted on Twitter, “No questions about Flynn’s status even though it is leading every newscast?? Are these planted questions on the Washington side?”

Katy Tur, a White House correspondent for MSNBC, said Trump dodged talking about Flynn by not calling on any journalist “with some real heft.”

Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg said in the last two days, Trump has only called on “conservative news orgs that did not ask about Flynn.”

And Peter Baker of the New York Times said that Trump managed to “get through news conference without being asked about Flynn.”