Jen Psaki slams Donald Trump’s “authoritarian” desire to punish journalists who criticize him

Former President Donald Trump’s threats against media outlets resemble Russia’s and China’s totalitarian leaders, former White House press secretary and current MSNBC host Jen Psaki pointed out in a recent broadcast.

Trump recently used his Truth Social media platform to state, “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.”

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“They are an unapologetically extreme organization that has built a long record of harassment.”

“Brian Roberts, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years,” Trump continued. “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!”

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Psaki pointed out that, as a cable news network, MSNBC doesn’t use “free government approved airwaves” — the media company follows federal broadcasting rules, but it also pays for its own broadcast. It’s also worth noting that Trump didn’t mention the right-wing media outlet Fox News, which regularly attacks Democratic politicians and their policies.

Psaki told her viewers, “[Trump] called for the U.S. government, in this particular post, to ‘come down hard’ on MSNBC and promised that there is ‘more to come.’ He also talked about himself in the third person, always a red flag in my book, and he included his middle initial on that too. But once you move beyond that kind of weird detail of his post, Trump is promising to resort to an authoritarian tactic should he become president again.”

She then mentioned that, while serving as a U.S. State Department spokesperson under then-President Barack Obama, she regularly received challenging questions and public pushback from an Associated Press reporter named Matt Lee. Rather than viewing Lee as a threat, she said that Lee’s job is to hold powerful government officials accountable. Most presidential administrations have regularly invited the media to engage with them — in fact, it’s a hallmark of our democratic republic, Psaki said.

“[Trump’s post is] actually a threat to the free press, a threat to democracy,” Psaki continued. “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.”

She then pointed out that Trump has formerly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, two authoritarian leaders who have persecuted hundreds of foreign and domestic journalists just for doing their jobs.

Trump has repeatedly made threats against the media. During his first presidential campaign, he labeled any unflattering coverage of him as “fake news,” and he threatened to change libel laws to sue publications that criticized him.

Historians have pointed out that Nazis used the German word lügenpresse (“lying press”) to discredit critical news media sources during their rise to power — sowing distrust against experts and official sources is a common tactic of fascist world leaders, political media analyst Jeff Sharlet recently told On The Media. Trump’s supporters have shouted “lügenpresse” to media members covering his rallies.

Lesbian MSNBC host Rachel Maddow recently pointed out that Trump “wants to put MSNBC on trial for treason so that he can execute us.” Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton’s 2020 memoir claimed that Trump called members of the news media “scumbags” who deserve to be “executed.”

Trump is currently the front-runner in the Republican primary race to win the party’s 2024 presidential nomination. A national civil rights group has warned that hate crimes will likely spike during the 2024 presidential election, especially as Trump uses his platforms to demonize LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized individuals.