Democratic Rep: Trump's threats against the media sound like 'tin-pot dictator'

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (CA) tore into Pres. Donald Trump's declaration that the media is the enemy of the American people in an interview to be aired on Sunday.

TheHill.com said that Schiff accused Trump of behaving like a "tin-pot dictator" by pretending to be the sole source of accurate news for his followers.

"This is something that you hear tin-pot dictators say when they want to control all of the information,” said Schiff. "It's not something you have ever heard a president of the United States say."

Trump continued his attacks on the media at a rally in Melbourne, Florida on Saturday. He accused the major networks -- except Fox News -- of being "fake news."

He went on to cite a non-existent terrorist attack in Sweden as justification for his administration's attempts to ban Muslim refugees from entering the U.S. as well as travelers from 7 Muslim-majority countries.

Schiff's remarks echoed those of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) who said that declaring the media the enemy of the people "is how dictators get started."

McCain's critics, however, say that his symbolic protests against Pres. Trump are meaningless if he is going to continue to vote in favor of every single one of Trump's appointees.

"McCain has supported every one of Trump’s nominees besides one: budget director Mick Mulvaney, who lost McCain’s support because he has supported defense budget cuts," wrote Alex Pareene at Deadspin. "McCain’s sole inviolable principle is that we must spend an unlimited amount of money on war with everyone forever."

"Senator John McCain is not going to 'fight' Trump," Pareene said. "He’s going to say various anti-Trump things, on TV and to reporters, while never using his very real power as a senior Republican senator to interrupt the implementation of Trump’s, and his party’s, eschatological agenda."

Watch the video, embedded below: