MSNBC’s Ali Velshi warned that former President Trump could pose a threat to the media if he is re-elected to the presidency in November.
Velshi, Talk to Mediate He pointed to comments made by Kash Patel, a former senior Pentagon official and Trump ally, in an interview that aired Saturday. last year, If Trump returns to the presidency, “we’re going to seek out the conspirators, not just in government but in the media.”
Belshi argued that the US could become like other countries around the world, where government officials “sometimes pursue criminal charges against journalists.”
“At the Committee to Protect Journalists, we hear stories of journalists who are walking around their countries in bulletproof vests all the time because they’re worried about their government,” he said.
“But harassment is a different matter – the idea of being audited out of the blue, or having your family members receive unexpected calls, or being threatened,” Belshi added. “You don’t need to enforce the law, you just need to scare journalists and tell them to report something else.”
“This fits with what Donald Trump has said about hunting down his enemies. He uses the language of retribution. ‘I am your retribution’ which is in a way mocking what Mussolini said, ‘I am your avenger.’ So I’ve been thinking about this,” Belshi said when asked if he was worried about the impact a second Trump term would have on journalists.
Trump had a tumultuous relationship with some in the media during the early days of his presidency, and was known for his inflammatory comments about the media, which he often labelled as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people.”
Belshi suggested that journalists could be viewed as critics by Trump and therefore could feel the effects of so-called retribution that the former president and his allies promised during the election campaign.
“If you fall into the category of a critic, that could be a journalist, that could be an opposition leader, that could be a prosecutor, that could be a witness, that could be a juror, that could be anyone,” Belshi said. “I think there is a threat that Donald Trump will attack you and that the Trump administration will attack you.”
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
With less than six months until the November election, President Trump holds a slim 0.6 percentage point lead over President Biden, according to a national polling index from The Hill and Decision Desk HQ.
