Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg said Monday that she was surprised to hear President Trump express concern over missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“It was a little shocking to hear [Trump] say that he cared especially because he was a reporter, given that he has incited violence against journalists, and has attacked the media so consistently since he started running,” Greenberg, managing partner at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”
“You know, rallies where he’s perfectly happy to have his followers screaming at the journalists that are in pens, and that sort of thing,” she continued, when asked how she thought Trump had incited violence against the press.
“I think when the president of the United States calls the media the enemy of the people repeatedly, that to me is at least indirectly inciting violence,” she said.
Khashoggi disappeared two weeks ago after a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say they have evidence that Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, was killed at the consulate. The Saudi king has denied any knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi.
Trump expressed concern over the Washington Post columnist’s disappearance in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday.
“Well, there’s a lot at stake. There’s a lot at stake. And maybe especially so because this man was a reporter,” Trump told Lesley Stahl.
“There’s something — you’ll be surprised to hear me say that. There’s something really terrible and disgusting about that if that were the case. So we’re going to have to see. We’re going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment,” he continued.
Trump has often referred to the press as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people,” citing reporting he says is biased against him.
— Julia Manchester
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. hill tv
