Is the Press the Enemy of the People?

As far as I have been able to determine from a modest amount of Googling, President Trump has never said that the press is the enemy of the people. On every occasion I am aware of, he has said that the “fake news press” is the enemy of the people, or specific Democratic Party news outlets like CNN are the enemy of the people. When he is riffing in public, Trump often speaks imprecisely, so it is possible that sometime, somewhere, he has said without qualification that the press is the enemy of the people. But I think anyone who pays attention knows that he is talking about the Democratic Party’s press auxiliary–the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, and so on.

Earlier today, Resister Jim Acosta, who has devoted his life to scurrilous attacks on President Trump, demanded that Sarah Sanders disavow her boss by declaring that the press is not the enemy of the people. On such occasions, bitter partisans like Acosta always clothe themselves in the supposedly neutral garb of the journalist. At this point, I don’t think anyone is fooled. Still, Sanders didn’t respond as I would have. She didn’t say that not all of the press consists of enemies of the people, but you, Jim, and CNN in general, are indeed in that category. Still, what she says is good.

The Trump administration is engaged in an epic battle with the press barons who have tried to elect Democrats for as long as I can remember. Even if Trump and his staff don’t always get everything right, at least they are fighting back against the powerful forces that are trying to destroy his administration.

Here is today’s exchange between Jim Acosta and Sarah Sanders:

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