Transcript: Trump Press Sec Goes Full Cult in Crazed Tirades at Media |
Transcript: Trump Press Sec Goes Full Cult in Crazed Tirades at Media
As Karoline Leavitt smears reporters with ugly MAGA tropes, a media observer explains why journalists won’t tell the truth about Trump’s authoritarianism—and why they should get this right to save themselves.
The following is a lightly edited transcript of the April 28 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.
Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
After a heavily armed man tried to breach security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, apparently to kill Donald Trump or others in his orbit, Trump and Republicans immediately started blaming Democratic rhetoric about Trump for the incident.
Unsurprisingly, Karoline Leavitt was more disgusting on this score than just about anyone else. Some media figures did fall for some of this, but really, this moment should drive home some fundamental truths for the media. Each side does use incendiary rhetoric about the other, but only one of the two parties is correct in describing the other as extreme and profoundly dangerous. Only one of the two parties is fundamentally hostile to liberal democracy and fundamentally hostile to the mission of the free press itself. Democrats should make this plain. We’re talking about all this with Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters, who has long been an observer of the media’s inability to cover that basic reality fairly. Matt, good to have you on.
Matt Gertz: Good to be back.
Sargent: So as of this recording, Cole Thomas Allen of California has been charged with a plot to assassinate Trump. This came at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night. Matt, can you explain the bigger context here—how this dinner is a gathering of the elite of the elites, with media figures perhaps being too willing to be cozy with Trump, given his attacks on liberal democracy and the press itself?
Gertz: Typically, the president of the United States is invited. He and members of his administration show up, and the president himself typically speaks. It’s generally a combination of lighthearted jokes and at some point, the president tends to talk about the importance of the freedom of the press, the importance of the First Amendment in our country.
When Donald Trump is president, this really takes on a new level, because of course Donald Trump doesn’t believe in the freedom of the press. He cannot convincingly give a paean to the First Amendment. He cannot recite the sort of pleasant clichés that you would expect in a situation like that. The idea of inviting him to an event like this should be anathema, but sadly hasn’t been.
Sargent: It certainly hasn’t. Well, let’s quickly go through what Republicans are saying. They’re fanning out to claim that Democrats are to blame for this alleged assassination attempt. Let’s listen to Karoline Leavitt.
Karoline Leavitt (voiceover): Nobody in recent years has faced more bullets and more violence than President Trump. This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party and even some in the media. This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment.
Sargent: Note that Leavitt appeals for calm and then immediately throws it all away by insisting that the primary cause of political violence in this country comes only from Democrats. Matt, you want to respond to that?
Gertz: Yeah, I mean, this is the sort of cynical, pathetic, cry-bully nonsense that I think we’ve come to expect from people like Leavitt. But if the White House is really concerned that the rhetoric has gotten out of control, then they could do something about how the president of the United States has referred to Democrats as traitors seven times in one week. It was last week.
This is the sort of rhetoric that we’ve come to expect from the president of the United States. And the idea here appears to be that the president can say whatever he wants and that all of his critics can say whatever he wants as well.
Sargent: I think there’s another imbalance that we should home in on for a second, and the media is uncomfortable with saying this. I believe it’s this: Trump and Republicans just don’t condemn political violence when it comes from their side with anything close to the vehemence that Democrats do when it comes from their side.
Trump and Republicans........