A former White House reporter on Saturday blasted Donald Trump for a purported "effort to stifle free speech."
Brian J. Karem, who famously asked Trump if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost the 2020 election, wrote in a piece for Salon over the weekend that the President has pushed the news media "down a slippery slope."
Specifically, the White House columnist highlighted the Trump administration's actions in connection with the Associated Press' media access.
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"Trump has a bug up his nether regions about the AP because it won’t recognize the Gulf of Mexico as 'the Gulf of America,' per Trump’s royal decree," Karem wrote. "It's not only questionable whether it’s a 'lawful' name change, but the rest of the world hasn’t acknowledged the change, so the AP — with offices around the world — has been right to withhold the change until something definitive — like a law being passed, or other countries acknowledging the change, take place. No matter, Trump isn’t going to wait. He wants you to bow right now damnit. So Trump has kicked the AP out of the pool for not bending its collective knee."
This, according to Karem, "begs the question what will happen when other reporters question Trump on anything from vaccines to Ukraine to immigration to a variety of other important topics."
"If Trump declares he’s stating facts when he isn’t, and we question him on the facts, who else will be kicked out of the pool for not agreeing with the president?" the reporter asked. "That’s a slippery slope into a cesspool I’d prefer to avoid."
He continues: "Trump says the AP isn’t losing its access to the White House grounds or their press passes. He learned the hard way, after both I and Jim Acosta defeated him in court during his last administration, that taking a press pass is problematic. But according to First Amendment attorney Ted Boutrous, who defended both me and Acosta, the AP has a great case to make against Trump."
