The news media won rare praise Monday from its critic-in-chief for covering the story of Alice Marie Johnson, whose life sentence for drug trafficking was commuted by President Donald Trump.
According to The Hill, Johnson, during a White House event celebrating a criminal-justice overhaul that Trump signed, said she wanted to thank the media for having "magnified my story."
Trump then jokingly asked her, "Are you sure?" — as attendees laughed and applauded, The Hill reported.
"Alice said 'I want to thank the media.' I sort of bent over and said, 'are you sure?' And I do too. I think it's fantastic. That's great," the president told the attendees.
He also thanked Van Jones, a former Obama administration official who co-founded the group #cut50 that advocated for the sentencing-reform law.
Johnson, 63, was released from prison last June after reality TV star Kim Kardashian personally asked Trump to grant her clemency. She was also one of Trump's guests at this year's State of the Union address, The Hill noted.
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