Arizona's Flake doubles down: Trump's using anti-media tactics the Soviets rejected as too extreme

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said on Sunday that President Donald Trump's attacks on the media are directly comparable to the anti-media tactics of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and were even disavowed by former Russian dictator Nikita Khruschev.

Flake -- who has emerged as a leading Republican critic of the president -- said in a speech on Sunday that Trump's attempts to demonize the media as "enemies of the people" are straight from Stalin's playbook.

"He borrowed that phrase, it was popularized by Josef Stalin and used by Mao as well," Flake told Kasie Hunt on Sunday's edition of "Kasie DC."

"It should be noted that Nikita Khrushchev, who followed Stalin, forbade its use," Flake said, "saying that was too loaded, that it maligned a whole group or class of people and it shouldn't be done."

"I don't think that we should be using a phrase that was rejected as too loaded by a Soviet dictator," he said.

Watch the video, embedded below: