Arizona Senator John McCain ® warned against President Donald Trump’s distrust of the free press on Saturday, telling NBC’s Chuck Todd that suppressing the press is “how dictators get started.”
Todd had asked McCain to respond to a tweet posted by Trump on Friday night, which referred to the media as “the enemy of the American People.”
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
“Do you believe the press is the enemy?” Todd asked. “Do you believe any group of Americans are the enemy of another group of Americans?”
“I was talking about the period, as you know, the new world order. A fundamental part of that new world order was a free press,” McCain answered.
“I hate the press. I hate you, especially,” he continued. “But the fact is,we need you. We need a free press. We must have it. It’s vital. If you want to preserve — I am very serious now. If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free, and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started.”
McCain was quick to note that he was not accusing Trump of being a dictator, but urged people to remember “lessons of history” that show authoritarians cracking down on the press.
“When you look at history the first thing dictators do is shut down the press,” he said. “I am not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I am just saying we need to learn the lessons of history.”
From the 02.19.2017 edition of NBC’s Meet The Press:
Arizona Senator John McCain ® warned against President Donald Trump’s distrust of the free press on Saturday, telling NBC’s Chuck Todd that suppressing the press is “how dictators get started.” Demonizing the press is a necessary precursor to enacting Fascist and Hitler’s nazi-like take over of the government. They will first demonize the free press and then attempt to control the outflow of information through their own propaganda machine. The current #unPOTUS has already successfully done this with 40+% of the population, his followers. Between him and his propaganda ministers, they spin false information and give #AltFacts on a daily basis which his followers unquestionably suck up as truth. Many of his supporters are beginning to see the light and are realizing that they have been duped.
