On Meet the Press Sunday three former White House press secretaries issued stern warnings about Donald Trump’s treatment of the press and the danger our free press will face with Trump in the White House.
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During a panel discussion with Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, Joe Lockhart former White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton, Nicolle Wallace former communications director for President George W. Bush and Ari Fleischer a former White House press secretary for George W Bush sounded the alarm over Trump’s treatment of the press and his seeming tenuous relationship with the truth.
Joe Lockhart compared Donald Trump to President Nixon who he said would create his own set of facts – something Trump is known to do. Lockhart continued, “It’s somewhat Orwellian, which, you know, you redefine the past, which means you can define the present and the future. And that’s going to be very difficult for both sides to come to grips with.”
Nicolle Wallace compared Donald Trump’s obsession with press coverage to a drug addict, saying, Trump doesn’t need the press, but wants it “like an addict craves their drugs.”
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“I think we’re staring at trees and missing the forest,” Wallace said. “We’ve just elected a man who bullies female reporters at his rally as an applause line. We have just elected a man who started a hot war with a female anchor instead of attending a debate she moderated. We are in a new place. And I don’t think it’s good. And I don’t think it has any parallels to the past.”
Ari Fleischer said that the feeling is between Trump and the press is mutual calling it a “double-barreled hostility” where neither side cares for each other.
“He can use it to his advantage, because as the Gallup poll recently indicated, confidence in the press to report the news accurately and fairly has never been lower,” Fleischer said. “And so the press has made itself vulnerable, because it lost the trust of their readers and their viewers — and Trump has widely taken advantage of it.”
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