During his first press conference since the election, Donald Trump called CNN “fake news” and only had one reserved seat at the presser – and it was for Breitbart News. The audience was packed with Trump hacks, proving that Donald is absolutely terrified of being presented with any dissenting opinions. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Transcript of the above video:
Yesterday, Donald Trump held his very first press conference since the November election, and to nobody’s surprise, he packed it full of his supporters and his paid staffers, so that he would have an audience to cheer and jeer when he attacked the press. In fact, this press conference was so one sided that only one seat in that entire room was actually reserved for a reporter. It just so happened, that reporter was Matt Boyle from Breitbart News. He is the only one who attended that press conference who had a reserved seat waiting for him right down there in the front row.
That’s what we’re going to see throughout this entire Donald Trump administration and presidency. His hostility towards the press is something that will not ever go away. He called CNN fake news. That was actually in response to a question asked by Breitbart. Here’s the thing. Look, I don’t like CNN more than anybody else, but they do report things that are accurate. They do not make things up. They just don’t do a very good job of covering things. CNN is not fake news. Breitbart, the guy in that reserved seat, is fake news.
Again, this all comes back to Donald Trump’s hostility towards the press, and the media, and reporters, and anyone willing to question anything that he does. For example, a question about Donald Trump’s tax returns, he responded by saying, “The press is the only one who cares about my tax returns.” Not true. Polls show that the majority of Americans actually want you to release those tax returns, but you know, that’s the truth, and you can’t be bothered to deal with the truth.
Another truth is that Donald Trump’s skin is so thin that he cannot handle any kind of opposition, any kind of tough questioning, any kind of dissidence in that audience. It has to be packed with people who love him, or who are at least paid to love him. Anyone who asks a critical question, or maybe a question that Donald Trump views negatively, is going to get insulted and threatened to be kicked out of the room. Already today, we’re seeing on Twitter a republican congressman calling for CNN journalists to be fired and banned from ever attending a future press conference for the rest of their lives. This is how fascism starts. You control the message. You control the media. While Donald Trump doesn’t necessarily control the media, if you control who comes into that room and asks you questions, you do control the media. You control the conversation. You control what information makes it out there to the American public.
It makes you look good, but it leaves the rest of us ill informed and stupid, which is exactly what republicans and Donald Trump want us to be. They want us to be happy little puppets who do not ask questions, who just go along with our lives assuming that Donald Trump is their leader and the greatest thing that ever happened to this country, while they continue to rape and pillage every facet of American life. We’re seeing it with Obama Care. We’re seeing it with the environment. We’re seeing it with corporations. We’re seeing it on Wall Street. That’s all the republicans care about. The more questions we ask, the more uncomfortable they get.
That’s all we can do at this point, is to continue to ask questions. Those reporters in that press pool, if Donald Trump answers one reporter’s question by calling them fake news, the next reporter needs to take up that same question until you get an answer. That’s how journalism works. Until people stand up in that press pool and do this, and hold him accountable, and call out fake news organizations like Breitbart, until that happens, it’s going to be a very rough Donald Trump administration, where we get absolutely no relevant information. We get no questions answered and we’re all left in the dark while he continues to run his scam of a presidency.
