MSNBC host Jen Psaki had a message for failed former president Donald Trump after he threatened the network, and she let fly with an epic clapback Sunday.
A couple of days ago, Trump posted this on his failing Truth Social site:
“MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Brian Roberts, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years. It is the world’s biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country. Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!”
That, Psaki explained, “sounded just like another one of those crazy, unhinged rants” Donald is famous for, but “he also talked about himself in the third person — always a red flag in my book, and he included his middle initial in that too.”
Psaki then gave the disgraced ex-president a lesson in the First Amendment and media in the United States:
“Trump is promising to resort to an authoritarian tactic should he become president again. Does the federal government have any role in the oversight of a cable news network? No they actually don’t. But that’s not the point here. What’s important is that he’s threatening to use the power of the government against media he believes is being critical of him.”
She added:
“Believe me, I know from experience from many days and hours at the briefing room, that the relationship between the U.S. government and the free press can be tense at times. And even both of the presidents I worked for, they had their own moments of unleashing their media critiques when they didn’t like a story. and when I think about the role of the free press and how essential it is for our democracy. I also think about my time as a spokesperson for the State Department.”
The larger issue, Psaki noted, is freedom of the press, which Trump is clearly opposed to, despite what the U.S. Constitution (and numerous Supreme Court decisions) have to say on the matter.
“It’s actually a threat to the free press. A threat to democracy. And that threat comes at a time when a record total of 533 journalists are currently detained worldwide. That’s according to Reporters Without Borders. A large number of them are being held by the sorts of authoritarian regimes that Trump envisions creating here at home.”
It’s not an overstatement to say that if Donald Trump wins in 2024, this country will become an authoritarian nightmare reminiscent of other totalitarian regimes (i.e. China and Russia) that censor almost everything their citizens read or see on a television broadcast. We cannot let that happen.
