Pence Tries To Clean Up After Trump, Says WH Supports 'Independent Press'
Virginia Mayo
Vice
President Mike Pence said Monday that he and President Donald Trump
"strongly support a free and independent press," amid furor over Trump's
latest attack on the media.
"Rest
assured, both the President and I strongly support a free and
independent press," Pence told reporters in Brussels, Belgium, per a
White House pool report. He said that Trump will continue to "call out" the press if it plays "fast and loose with the facts."
"The truth is that we have in President Trump someone who has a unique ability to speak directly to the American people," Pence said. "And when the media gets it wrong, I promise you, President Trump will take his case straight to the American people to set the record straight."
In a tweet posted Friday, Trump claimed that the "FAKE NEWS media" is not his personal nemesis but rather "the enemy of the American People.
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) warned in an interview aired Sunday that suppressing critical coverage is "how dictators get started."
"If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press," he said. "Without it I'm afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time."
Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis also broke with Trump on Sunday, saying in an interview that he does not "have any issues with the press."
"I’ve had some rather contentious times with the press," he told reporters. "But no, the press as far as I’m concerned are a constituency that we deal with, and I don't have any issues with the press myself."
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McCain Warns That Suppressing Free Press Is 'How Dictators Get Started'
Wong Maye-E
Sen.
John McCain (R-AZ) defended the free press in an interview aired Sunday
and warned that suppressing critical coverage is "how dictators get
started."
"If you
want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and
many times adversarial press," McCain said in an interview on NBC News'
"Meet the Press."He said that a free press is "vital" to that.
"Without it I'm afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started," McCain said.
"That's how dictators get started? With tweets like that?" Chuck Todd asked McCain, referring to a tweet posted by President Donald Trump on Friday.
In the post, Trump railed against the "FAKE NEWS media" as "the enemy of the American People."
"No, they get started by suppressing a free press," McCain said Sunday. "The first thing that dictators do is they shut down the press. And I'm not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator, I'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history."
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