President Donald Trump ramped up his feud with CNN and other news outlets, but one of the network's anchors flagged a telling detail in his latest attack.
The 80-year-old president followed through on his threat to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over the weekend, and threatened to ban others, and Trump responded to widespread criticism of his move.
"The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish," Trump posted Monday morning on his social media platform Truth Social. "It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!"
CNN's Sara Sidner highlighted that last line during a discussion with legal analyst Joey Jackson.
"I do want to ask you what thepresident said initially,because he said he was blockingsome members of the press fromaccessing the White House as aresult of their constantreporting 'fake news,'" Sidner said. "Now, hehas added something. Clearly, itseems he's talked to some folksin the legal department. He isliterally calling it a threat tonational security, and ifyou look at the reporting, it'soutrageous. I mean, thereporting that he doesn'tlike, but he has changed histact in exactly what he says isthe problem. Does that fly? Willthat work? Is that an importantnew addition?"
Jackson agreed that argument was significant.
"It's extremely importantbecause the rationale as to whyyou're doing something isalways critical, right?" he said. "Thecontext matters, perspectivematters, and if you're doing itand just want to be clear, the White House certainly hasoperational concerns. You canregulate the decorum of themedia, right, with regard towhat they're going to do, theprocedural mechanisms of howthey do it. You ask yourquestion; you stop before youmake a follow–up– all that'sfair. But, and of course,national security buzzwords,right? If it relates to securityor public protection, you can doit. I just don't see how thisat all relates to that."
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