Former President Donald Trump’s latest screed attacking the media on Truth Social raised a lot of eyebrows Wednesday and sounded alarm bells across the country.
Trump wrote late on Tuesday night, “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.”
“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. Our so-called “government” should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!” added the GOP frontrunner.
The comments were quickly denounced by journalists and pundits warning of the former president’s explicit promise to curb press freedoms and punish his critics.
“Trump continues his deranged authoritarian outbursts, which, due to the ‘banality of crazy,’ will garner virtually no mainstream coverage. Americans deserve to know this stuff. Trump’s authoritarianism is the most important political story in America—and nothing else is close,” wrote The Atlantic’s Brian Klaas.
Ex-Obama advisor David Axelrod added, “I think we owe it to Trump to take his words seriously. He would use the power of government to punish media outlets who do critical reporting about him. Where are those who speak reflexively about fidelity to the Constitution but apparently have not read it?”
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, replied, “As journalist we need to take Trump’s threats to ‘come down hard on and make them pay’ seriously and stop covering him like a normal candidate.”
Carlson shared a post from MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire, writing, “Trump again threatening to use the power of the government against media he believes is being critical of him: ‘More to come, watch!’”
Legal analyst Bradley Moss reacted by noting Trump’s argument didn’t make much technical sense, noting, “MSNBC doesn’t use airwaves. NBC local affiliates might, but MSNBC is a cable network.”
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