Sam Donaldson: History shows ‘would-be tyrants always attempt to destroy a free press’

Former longtime ABC News White House correspondent Sam Donaldson on Tuesday denounced President Trump’s “wholesale attack” on the press, saying that history shows “would-be tyrants” invariably try to quash the media. 

“Trump’s wholesale attack on the mainstream press is wrong, and it is dangerous,” Donaldson, a longtime reporter and news anchor, wrote in a CNN op-ed. “History shows that tyrants and would-be tyrants always attempt to destroy a free press. And that is why the First Amendment to our Constitution specifically forbids government from interfering with the work of the press.”

{mosads}Donaldson went on to note that almost every president he covered during his 52 years as a journalist “fundamentally understood and accepted the important role of the press.” The one exception, he said, was former President Nixon. 

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with almost every press secretary beginning with Pierre Salinger in the John F. Kennedy administration. And except for [former press secretary] Ron Ziegler, who lied for Richard Nixon, I’ve never seen anything like this with Sarah Sanders,” Donaldson said while speaking on CNN. 

{mosads}Donaldson argued at the time that Sanders’s behavior was worse than Ziegler’s because Ziegler only lied about whether Nixon tried to cover up the burglary at the Watergate hotel. 

“But if you asked him a question about foreign policy, domestic policy, he would try to say what he thought the facts were, and it would often be truthful,” he said. “Sarah Sanders simply lies about everything, taking a cue from her boss.”

“She deserves a lifetime achievement Oscar for lying,” Donaldson continued. “I don’t know her. I feel a little sorry for her. It’s the boss who does it. She takes the cue from him.” 

Sanders has faced increased scrutiny since special counsel Robert Mueller’s report disclosed that she misled reporters about former FBI Director James Comey’s firing. Sanders had said in May 2017 that “countless” FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey before his dismissal. 

She told investigators she made false statements about the dismissal, attributing them to a “slip of the tongue,” according to Mueller’s report. 

“I acknowledge that I had a slip of the tongue when I used the word ‘countless’ but it’s not untrue … that a number of both current and former FBI agents agreed with the president,”  Sanders told Fox News host Sean Hannity on the day of the report’s release. 

Sanders has been part of President Trump’s administration since its first day and has served as press secretary since July 2017. 

-Updated at 3:33 p.m.