川普在亚利桑那集会上严厉批评媒体

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.