Comments made by Donald Trump on Air Force One about how his critics should be treated created no small measure of outrage and incredulity on MSNBC on Friday morning.
While returning from his visit in the United Kingdom, the president was asked about late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel having his show pulled “indefinitely” by ABC/Disney over some anodyne comments he made about the Charlie Kirk killing, and the president then went beyond that specific topic.
“I have read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me, again, 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily, all seven swing states,” he told reporters. “They give me only bad publicity, press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
That led “Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough to blurt, “We've talked about it before, but think about the madness of all of this again. You have got now the MAGA right being champions of cancel culture. You've got the MAGA right now trying to crush free speech after being supposedly free speech absolutist. You have [Attorney General] Pam Bondi talking about going after Home Depot if they won't print out fliers, certain political fliers, maybe arrest them, talking about firing.”
“And again, the idea that squads of people are going around and saying, 'Don't worry, Charlie, we're going to find people who used free speech in a way you wouldn't have liked and get them fired from their jobs'? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? This is a very thing that he and the MAGA movement and the free press were complaining about for a decade, and now they're taking it in a more extreme way than the left ever did,” he added.
“I mean, again, they've canceled two of three late-night show hosts in a short period of time, and now they're threatening retribution for people who won't print out fliers, threatening retribution for people that put out a mean tweet.”
“I mean, we've made it very clear. We've made it very clear before that political violence is heinous, that against Charlie Kirk was absolutely just vile and heinous,” he pointed out. “And that's why we saw most sides strongly and roundly condemning that violence!”
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