The Press Just Caught Trump In A Lie, And His Idea Of Payback May Be Illegal
This morning, ‘President’ Donald Trump took to Twitter with a threat to cancel all press briefings, effectively ending the free press guaranteed by the First Amendment. Trump is furious that the media is criticizing the conflicting stories he and his surrogates provided in the wake of the outrageous firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
Comey was in the midst of investigating ties between the Trump campaign team and Russian agents. Initially Trump surrogates tried to give the decision a veneer of respectability by claiming that he was only responding to a recommendation from the Department of Justice – which is headed by Jeff Sessions, a man who has already been forced to recuse himself from Russia investigations due to his own treacherous actions.
Then, Trump insisted that he would have fired Comey anyways, even without the recommendation. In other words, Trump announced that, like a dictator, he was planning on taking out the man investigating him with no regard for our institutions and, true to form, he and his regime first lied to the American people in an attempt to cover it up.
The Fake Media is working overtime today!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
…Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
Trump is offering a disturbing dichotomy: press briefings with ‘alternative facts’ and disregard for the truth, or no press briefings at all. Do not be misled by his suggestion to hand out written information – the opportunity for reporters to ask probing questions is critical for an effective press.
Trump’s threat is just more evidence of his dictatorial style. For man a man who professed to admire Russia’s Vladimir Putin, emulating the autocrat may be the one campaign pledge that Trump is actually fulfilling.
