President Trump, enraged by a New York Times report about his “public war” on the various investigations of him and his administration, declared in a tweet today that the newspaper is “a true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
In a personal tweet, MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin warned that Trump’s words could have serious consequences:
The Times reported Tuesday that in a “familiar tactic,” Trump has sought to put loyalists in positions of power over the investigations, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into links between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia and a federal investigation in New York into “silencing women [linked to Trump] with hush payments during the 2016 campaign.”
In another tweet Wednesday, the president said the news media have “never been more dishonest,” adding that “The writers don’t even call asking for verification.”
In response, Maggie Haberman, one of the reporters who compiled Tuesday’s report, told CNN she sent “several emails” over the weekend that “went unanswered.”
“They [White House officials] chose not to engage, and then afterwards the president acts surprised,” she said. “Now whether his aides are not telling him what we are looking at, or whether this is a game, and he knows what it is, and he’s pretending that he doesn’t — I can’t read his mind.”
She added that regarding Trump’s claims that reporters don’t seek verification, “that’s a lie.”
Tuesday’s Times report said its examination “reveals the extent of an even more sustained, more secretive assault by Mr. Trump on the machinery of federal law enforcement” than has been reported previously.
But much of this alleged “assault” is far from secret: “His lawyer talks openly about a strategy to smear and discredit the special counsel investigation. The president’s allies in Congress and the conservative news media warn of an insidious plot inside the Justice Department and the F.B.I. to subvert a democratically elected president.”
Democrats now controlling the House of Representatives “have said they will wait for Mr. Mueller to finish his work before making a decision about whether the president’s behavior warrants impeachment,” the Times said.
The publisher of the Times, A.G. Sulzberger released a statement saying;
“America’s founders believed that a free press was essential to democracy because it is the foundation of an informed, engaged citizenry. That conviction, enshrined in the First Amendment, has been embraced by nearly every American president. Thomas Jefferson declared, “The only security of all is in a free press.” John F. Kennedy warned about the risks to “free society without a very, very active press.” Ronald Reagan said, “There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong and independent press to our continued success.”
“All these presidents had complaints about their coverage and at times took advantage of the freedom every American has to criticize journalists. But in demonizing the free press as the enemy, simply for performing its role of asking difficult questions and bringing uncomfortable information to light, President Trump is retreating from a distinctly American principle. It’s a principle that previous occupants of the Oval Office fiercely defended regardless of their politics, party affiliation, or complaints about how they were covered.”
Sulzberger called Trump’s “enemy of the people” not just false, but dangerous. In a meeting at the White House last month, Trump assured Sulzberger that he was a great defender of the free press.