December 4, 2023

Jen Psaki with a very stark reminder of just how dangerous Trump is after he lashed out at her network last week with this ridiculous rant on "Truth Social."

"MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE," he wrote. "Brian Roberts, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years."

"It is the world's biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country," he added. "Our so-called "government" should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!"

Here's Psaki's response after showing the post above:

PSAKI: Trump is promising to resort to an authoritarian tactic should he become president again. Does the federal government have any role in the oversight of a cable news network? No, they actually don't. But that's not really the point here. What's important here is that he's threatening to use the power of the government against media he believes is being critical of him.

Now believe me, I know from experience from many days and hours at the briefing room, that the relationship between the U.S. government and the free press can be tense at times, and even both of the presidents I worked for, they had their own moments of unleashing their media critiques when they didn't like a story, and when I think about the role of the free press and how essential it is for our democracy, I often think about my time as a spokesperson for the State Department, because I got into it a lot with a reporter named Matt Lee from the Associated Press. He is still there. He's long been the dean of the press corps, and he has earned that right. He probably knows more about foreign policy than a good percentage of the people working in the building.

He became so well known for grilling me and many other press secretaries during the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, that he became kind of a bit of a folk hero in the Kremlin. They portrayed him as someone who was holding the U.S. to account, who was standing up to power. To be clear, he wasn't pushing Russian points. Not at all. The Russians just liked that he did this, that an American reporter was tough and combative and was pushing back on me and others in the briefing room.

At one point I asked Lee about this, and his response stuck with me. He basically said, whether the policy is good or bad, or smart, or makes sense, or not, which he was going to push us on, the U.S. government has multiple briefings a day, at the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and journalists can go, and push, and ask questions. The Russians may applaud me, as in him, at these events, but they have none of that. They don't have a free press there, a free functioning press in Russia.

I even thought of Lee's words when I was at the White House, because it was a reminder that even when things were combative, and they were at times, even when reporters kept pushing and questioning, as was their job, that was democracy working. That is what a free press is supposed to do. And it doesn’t exist everywhere in the world. In fact, it’s diminishing in the world.

So Trump’s Truth Social post may have seen unhinged and crazy and random, and like you can ignore it. It was actually tough a threat to the free press, a threat to democracy. And that threat comes at a time when a record total of 533 journalists are currently detained worldwide. That’s according to Reporters Without Borders.

A large number of them are being held by the sorts of authoritarian regimes that Trump envisions creating here at home. These are countries being led by his role models, like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Trump called very savvy and a genius for his actions in Ukraine.

In Russia, an American journalist Evan Gershkovich has been detained for 249 days, simply for doing his job. Trump has also repeatedly praised the leadership style of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Over 100 journalists are currently detained in China, and over the last couple of years, several foreign journalists from major outlets have been expelled entirely from the country.

Putin and Xi are models for Trump, we know that. Leaders who jail and silence journalists. Leaders who do not tolerate free speech. That’s what Trump is threatening. And if you don’t think he’s eager to use those tactics, if you don't think he is dying to silence his critics and the media, think again.

Yep. When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon