Trump the martyr can’t muzzle press
But urged ex-FBI chief to lock up reporters over leaks
“Look at the way I’ve been treated lately — especially by the media. No politician in history — and I say this with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly.” — President Trump’s speech yesterday at the Coast Guard Academy commencement.
Donald Trump, who fought for well over a year to acquire the office he now holds, who spent so many of those first 100 days trying to convince the nation that his electoral vote tally was the biggest ever (it wasn’t), that his inaugural crowds were the biggest ever (they weren’t), now chooses to play the martyr.
No politician — notice he’s not even narrowing the field merely to presidents of the United States — has ever, ever been treated worse — not ever in the course of human history — believe it!
Our hyperbolic commander in chief had to offer this bit of personal advice to the Coast Guard grads:
“Over the course of your life, you will find that things are not always fair. You will find that things happen to you that you do not deserve and that are not always warranted. But you have to put your head down and fight, fight, fight. Never, ever, ever give up. Things will work out just fine . . .
“You can’t let them get you down. You can’t let the critics and the naysayers get in the way of your dreams.”
Having realized his dream, of course, Trump seems determined to fritter it away with unforced errors.
Trump’s moaning about his press coverage — accompanied by his nearly constant berating of the press — began during the campaign and hasn’t abated since. During the campaign he threatened to rewrite the libel laws After his election he didn’t understand why there needed to be a White House pool to keep track of his many comings and goings — all those annoying reporters and photographers to be kept at bay. He became the first president to skip out on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner (not counting Ronald Reagan, who had the excuse of recovering from a gunshot wound). And he still repeatedly threatens to do away with the White House daily briefing. (Now instead he seems more inclined to do away with the White House daily briefer, which has actually caused a certain level of media sympathy for the poor, beleaguered Sean Spicer.)
Which brings us to what some of us might consider the real news in that leaked memo written by fired FBI Director James Comey about a February meeting with Trump in the Oval Office — just the two of them. Yes, most of the focus has been on Trump reportedly asking Comey to shut down the FBI probe of newlyfired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, telling Comey, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”
Well, yes, news-wise that’s big stuff. But, according to the memo Trump began the discussion by condemning news leaks to the media and then urging Comey to put reporters in prison for publishing classified information leaked to them. Apparently Trump —who doesn’t seem to be much of a student of history — wasn’t aware of the Pentagon Papers, first leaked to The New York Times back in 1971. But then he’s a little shaky on all that First Amendment stuff.
And not to belabor the obvious, but as Bruce Brown of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press put it in a statement issued Tuesday, “No president gets to jail journalists. Reporters are protected by judges and juries, by a Congress that relies on them to stay informed, and by a Justice Department that for decades has honored the role of a free press by spurning prosecutions of journalists for publishing leaks of classified information.
“Comments such as these, emerging in the way they did, only remind us that every day public servants are reaching out to reporters to ensure the public is aware of the risks today to rule of law in this country. The president’s remarks should not intimidate the press but inspire it.”
That’s the part Trump seems to have missed. Over the past several years a lot of people were writing obituaries for journalism in general and newspapers in particular. Fans of Hillary Clinton spent several weeks searching for scapegoats and put the media at the top of the list. Their reasoning? Well, if we hadn’t devoted so much time to covering Hillary’s emails and all those Trump tweets and antics and finally every word that James Comey uttered . . . — yep, that’s all on us.
But today we remain one of those institutions that Donald Trump can’t control — and so far can’t lock up. It’s a good place to be.