The team of President Joe Biden is rebuking some of the latest rhetoric from former President Donald Trump against U.S. media.
This time, Trump, who is also running for president again, threatened the major news sources NBC and MSNBC with actions he left largely unspecified in the event he does regain the White House. The ex-president clamored specifically against the arrangements under which these news organizations can utilize broadcast capabilities in the United States — jeering at the basic infrastructure that allows their operations. In other words, it’s another startling example of the former president’s aggressive antagonism towards the mere spread of information with which he finds some issue.
“Freedom of the press is a fundamental Constitutional right,” a statement from Biden’s team asserted. “To abuse presidential power and violate the Constitutional rights of reporters would be an outrageous attack on our democracy and the rule of law. Presidents’ must always defend Americans’ freedoms — never trample on them for selfish, small, and dangerous political purposes.”
Though Trump continues to express predictable confidence that he’ll get another four years in the White House, that’s not the actual message of polling from the ongoing presidential race. Surveys measuring Americans’ views on the expected rematch between Trump and Biden deliver a somewhat mixed portrait, though the incumbent is in the lead plenty of the time, which makes it clear there’s no massive groundswell of support for Trump among Americans.
On Truth Social recently, Trump also insisted there was a historical precedent for the execution of Mark Milley, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a military position. It’s utterly absurd that so many Republicans wish to cast themselves as those standing for that classic idea of law and order while also sticking with the guy who is suggesting, even if not directly promoting for the here-and-now, the execution of top military leadership. Like — seriously people! Get real!
The White House issued a response this morning Trump’s comments about NBC/MSNBC https://t.co/aJ3w8Uhn5x pic.twitter.com/wKggCFnBjl
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) September 25, 2023
