Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright said Monday that President Trump’s attacks on the media resemble that of a dictator — and undermines freedom of the press.
“For some reason, this president does not enjoy the fact that people disagree with him,” Seawright told Hill.TV. “It’s almost like he behaves like a dictator in some regard — you cannot disagree with him or else.”
“That’s unfortunate because I think the press … have a job to hold this administration accountable whether he likes it or not,” Seawright continued.
Seawright, who was a senior advisor to former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, said he worries about journalists being being banned from the White House press events, saying it “sets a dangerous precedence.”
The White House on Wednesday banned CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins from a Rose Garden event after she posed questions to Trump during an earlier Oval Office meeting. The administration said Collins’s questions were “inappropriate” and not “respectful.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has been compared to a dictator when it comes to his treatment of the press.
In January, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), who is a frequent critic of Trump, said the president’s use of the terms “fake news” and “enemy of the people” is reminiscent of words used by Soviet Union dictator Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies.
But it doesn’t look like the president is toning down his rhetoric on the press anytime soon.
Last week, Trump told veterans in Kansas not to “believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news.” After his summit two weeks ago with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump once again called the “fake news media” the “real enemy of the people.”
— Tess Bonn
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