October 19, 2018: The President Doesn't Mind if People Beat Up Reporters

 

10/19/18: Reporters want to know if Trump has any regrets after seeming to encourage attacks on journalists at the Montana rally. 

Isn’t this a mistake, in light of the fact the Saudis now admit they murdered Jamal Khashoggi? 

“No, no, no, not at all,” Trump replies. “No, that was a different league, a different world.” 

He doesn’t see any problem with his laughing support for Rep. Greg Gianforte who slammed a reporter to the ground after being asked an inconvenient question (see: 10/18/18). 

“That was a tremendous success last night in Montana,” Trump says of the rally, “and Greg is a great person, he’s a tough cookie, and I’ll stay with that.” 

Rep. Greg Gianforte.

____________________ 

When the free press dies, it dies for everyone.

____________________ 

 

Condemnation is swift. Prime Minister Theresa May is not amused by the president’s comments about assaulting a reporter working for a British paper. Her spokesperson issues a statement: Trump “obviously made comments at a political rally and those are for him but more generally we would always say that violence or intimidation against a journalist [emphasis added] is completely unacceptable.”  

Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, for whom the victim was working, puts it succinctly: 

At a time when reporters around the world are being harassed, arrested and even murdered these are incredibly irresponsible comments, which fly in the face of press freedom and send a dangerous message to autocrats and dictators around the world.

 

The world’s press would welcome a clear statement from the US government that it remains committed to the rights of journalists everywhere to do their work without fear of violence or repression.

 

PEN America, a writer’s organization, warns that Trump’s “explicit praise” for an attacker 

marks a startling new low in terms of the White House’s open hostility toward the press…Trump’s remarks are a chilling reminder that US global leadership on press freedom has collapsed utterly under the president’s watch. In its place is an attitude of contempt, excusing and now even applauding violence toward the press.

 

See, Trump fans, how easy this is to grasp? You either believe in a free press, or you don’t. 

If you don’t you are paving the way to a day when Tucker Carlson gets body-slammed when a Democratic version of Donald J. Trump takes over. 

When the free press dies it dies for everyone, conservative, liberal, and everyone in between.

 

* 

DID SOMEONE MENTION Montana? Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke remains under a cloud. There are reports that the Inspector General at Interior opened up several investigations into whether or not Zinke had agency regulations changed so he could fly his wife around on taxpayer dollars. 

The Trump administration suddenly hinted that they would like to appoint Assistant HUD Secretary Susanne Tufts to be the new IG at Interior, despite her complete lack of qualifications for such a job. 

Politico, for example, described Tufts as “a GOP operative with no experience investigating allegations of unethical behavior.” This was kind of a poor look to anyone who had functioning eyeballs. In any case, Ms. Tufts suddenly handed in her resignation at HUD and left the stage. 

The White House denied ever dreaming of making her IG at Interior.