The U.S. Constitution has guaranteed the right to a free press for nearly 240 years, but it appears Donald Trump thinks time’s up.
The president gave a speech Friday at the Justice Department railing against news outlets he says have unfairly targeted him.
Trump singled out CNN and MSNBC, which he called “MSNDC,” claiming those outlets “literally write 97.6% bad about me” and are “political arms of the Democrat Party.”
He added, “In my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what they do is illegal.”
Trump then argued that media organizations that report negative things about him “are really no different than a highly paid political operative,” insisting, “it has to stop, it has to be illegal” because “it’s influencing judges and it’s really, eh, changing law, and it just cannot be legal.”
He additionally claimed that news outlets cover him negatively “in total coordination with each other.”
Here’s a clip of the exchange.
Trump’s DOJ speech is just one of his latest attacks on First Amendment rights. The Trump administration has made it harder for media outlets that aren’t politically aligned with the president, including The Associated Press and HuffPost, to cover the White House in recent weeks.
Many people on social media used their own free speech rights to criticize Trump’s claims that CNN and MSNBC are “illegal.”
Journalist Aaron Rupar called Trump’s remarks “full fascist,” while another commenter pointed out that “illegal” doesn’t mean “hurts my feelings.”
Some people noted that Trump trashed the two cable networks even though executives and personalities at both companies have been criticized for attempting to placate him in the wake of his reelection.
Others pointed out that Trump’s main gripe against the networks is that they are reporting on the things he does.
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