Ex-GOP lawmaker: Trump endangers the lives of reporters by calling media ‘enemy of the people’
Conservative radio host and former GOP Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.) said Monday President Trump “endangers the lives” of every member of the media when he calls them the “enemy of the people.”
“Every time the President of the United States calls the media the ‘enemy of the people’ he endangers the lives of each & every member of the media in this country,” Walsh tweeted. “It is a disgusting & dangerous thing to say. He should be called out by all of us.”
{mosads}“Shame on him. Shame on him,” he continued.
Walsh, a former congressman who served a term in the House representing Illinois’s 8th District, supported Trump during his presidential campaign in 2016 but has been a frequent critic of the president since.
His tweet came shortly after the president blamed the media for causing “great anger” in the country in the wake of a violent week that included a series of mail bombs and a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Trump said the media is the “true enemy of the people.”
“There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly,” Trump wrote in a pair of tweets.
“That will do much to put out the flame of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony,” he added.
CNN said another suspicious package addressed to the news organization had been intercepted in Atlanta on Monday morning.
Investigators arrested a Florida man last week in connection with a series of package bombings that targeted CNN’s New York office as well as a prominent Democrats.
CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker tore into Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week for their sustained attacks on the press.
“There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,” Zucker said in a statement.
“The President, and especially the White House Press Secretary, should understand their words matter,” he added. “Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that.”