President Donald Trump is known to call any news he doesn’t approve of “fake news.” He uses the term so frequently that he told Mike Huckabee he thinks it’s the greatest term he’s come up with. However, for one GOP senator his latest attack came too close to infringing upon constitutional rights.
Trump's latest attack was aimed at NBC because Trump felt misquoted when discussing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, He, of course, took to Twitter to attack the media, wondering if their "license" should be challenged. (Notably, no one seems to know what license he is talking about.)
Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a "tenfold" increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017
The Twitter rant starts out as usual, Trump complaining about how the media treats him unfairly. But then his tweets take a turn that is actually terrifying.
With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017
Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2017
But, yes, to be clear: Trump is talking about trying to silence news stations based on the fact that his feelings are hurt.
And it's because of those tweets that Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, released a statement calling out the President for this move.
Mr. President:
Are you recanting of the Oath you took on Jan. 20 to preserve, protect, and defend the 1st Amendment? pic.twitter.com/XLB7QXM3bQ— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) October 12, 2017
Sasse asked the President, “Are you recanting of the Oath you took on Jan. 20 to preserve, protect, and defend the 1st Amendment?” Affirming that one of the president's primary jobs is to preserve the civil liberties of their people.
This question should’ve been asked a long time ago, when Trump first started attacking the media — like when he didn’t let the New York Times, CNN, BuzzFeed, the BBC and so many more news outlets into an informal briefing with Sean Spicer back in February because he said the media was an “enemy of the American people.” (While allowing outlets that published positive news about him in to the event.)
Sasse is providing a great example of what it means to call out your peers. In this case, it isn’t a Democrat and Republican issue; It’s an American, first amendment issue.
