How dare Fox News let Vice President Kamala Harris appear on the right-leaning network and then allow some panelists to—gasp—praise her performance? That’s grounds for a predictable Donald Trump social media tirade.
After the Democratic presidential nominee’s contentious Wednesday interview with host Bret Baier where she slammed Trump as “dangerous” and “unfit to serve,” the GOP nominee slapped a pouty post on his Truth Social site.
“If I win and, I hope for the Country’s sake that I do, and this Radical Left Moron, Kamala, doesn’t get a chance to run the Country, it is DESPITE Fox, not because of them!” Trump declared.
Who is going to tell him that the press does not exist to help him win elections?
These objections are especially rich coming from someone still spewing threats against CBS' “60 Minutes” following the show’s interview with Harris. In his addled opinion, Fox News should be boosting him—but how dare a news show “help” his opponent?
“60 MINUTES SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY TAKEN OFF THE AIR—ELECTION INTERFERENCE. CBS SHOULD LOSE ITS LICENSE,” Trump wailed on his Truth Social site Thursday. He has falsely claimed that the show’s editing of Harris’ answer to a question amounted to a campaign finance violation.
Who is going to tell him that promotional videos can be stylized and cut differently than what ends up on the final broadcast? Even the conservative law firm that filed a complaint against CBS with the Federal Communications Commission admits news producers have the editorial authority to clip interviews however they deem fit.
“Under this commission’s long-standing precedent, CBS retains the right to exercise news judgment when editing its material,” the filing said. “And that kind of editing is normal in the context of a news magazine style show like “Sixty Minutes.”
But the Fourth Estate’s rights matter very little to Trump. Just like the strongmen and dictators he loves to take care of and write love letters to, Trump has a history of threatening journalists and news organizations who challenge or criticize him. He also likes to sling personal insults and publicly demean reporters who ask questions based on facts.
“What a stupid question that is, but I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions,” he told CNN reporter Abby Phillip in 2018.
“Why don’t you act in—a little more positive?” he told PBS Newshour’s Yamiche Alcindor in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. “It's always trying to getcha, getcha, getcha, and you know what that’s why nobody trusts the media anymore. You didn’t hear me, that’s why you used to work for the Times and now you work for somebody else.”
Trump seems especially fixated on belittling and threatening the paper known as the Gray Lady.
“The New York Times is one of the most dishonest of all,” Trump said to right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro. “I watched this New York Times, and it’s a classic. Wait until you see what I’m going to do with them. You’re going to have so much fun.”
Trump threatened NBC and MSNBC with the same language on his Truth Social site in September 2023.
“I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events,” he wrote. “Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
It’s hilarious that Trump can barely stand the teensiest inkling of criticism from the rare Fox News personality with a shred of integrity who is willing to provide a voice of reason on occasion. He acts as if the news channel isn’t staffed almost exclusively by his former White House staffers and other assorted sycophants.
“Twentieth-century dictators—notably Stalin, Hitler, and Mao—had all denounced their critics, especially the press, as ‘enemies of the people,’” Harvard’s Edward R. Murrow Professor Emeritus Marvin Kalb wrote in his book, “The Enemy of the People.”
“Their goal was to delegitimize the work of the press as ‘fake news’ and create confusion in the public mind about what’s real and what isn’t; what can be trusted and what can’t be. That, it seems, is also Trump’s goal,” Kalb concluded.
Yes, even in his safe space over at Fox News, Trump can’t take the heat. A president, like Harris said in her interview, should “be able to handle criticism without saying he’d lock people up for doing it.”
Keep this wannabe dictator far away from the White House. Donate to Kamala Harris today!
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