"We spend, you know, 48 hours on bogus stories," Reince Priebus said. "And the American people suffer. | Getty Priebus: Trump's comments on the media should be taken 'seriously'

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said President Donald Trump's comments on the press being "the enemy" should be taken "seriously," while criticizing journalists' use of unnamed sources.

In an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" to be broadcast Sunday, host John Dickerson asked Priebus whether the American people should take Trump seriously after he tweeted Friday that the press "is the enemy of the American people."


"I think you should take it seriously. I think that the problem we've got is that we're talking about bogus stories like the one in The New York Times, that we've had constant contact with Russian officials. The next day, The Wall Street Journal had a story that the intel community was not giving the president a full intelligence briefing," Priebus said. "Both stories [were] grossly inaccurate, overstated, overblown, and it's total garbage."

Over the past couple of weeks, the White House has suffered from damaging leaks and reports of chaos within Trump's administration. Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was ousted following revelations he'd lied about the nature of contact with Russian officials to Vice President Mike Pence. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, meanwhile, denied a report that intelligence was being withheld from the president amid security concerns.

"We spend, you know, 48 hours on bogus stories," Priebus continued. "And the American people suffer. So I do think it's a problem."

Priebus also criticized journalists for using unnamed sources.

"If the theory is that the press is supposed to be a free forum of information to speak to the American people, I think it ought to be accurate. And I think we've gotten to a place, John, where the media is willing to run with unnamed sources, apparently false leaked documents to create stories," he said.

"We deal with one after the next. I think that the media should stop with this unnamed source stuff, put names on a piece of paper and print it. If people aren't willing to put their name next to a quote, then the quote shouldn't be listed. Period."

The remarks on sourcing from Priebus, formerly the chairman of the Republican National Committee, drew incredulity from multiple journalists on social media, with many asking whether conversations with administration officials would now be on the record.