Trump admitted to reporters that his goal is to shut down Twitter because he doesn’t want any social media company to fact check him.
The exchange:
TRUMP: If Twitter were not honorable…I think you shut it down, as far as I’m concerned, but I’d have to go through a legal process.
REPORTER: And how would you shut down an American company?
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TRUMP: I don’t know. I’d have to ask the lawyers. I’d have to go through a legal process. If it were legal, if it were able to be legally shut down, I would do it.
Video:
TRUMP: If Twitter were not honorable…I think you shut it down, as far as I’m concerned.
REPORTER: And how would you shut down an American company?
TRUMP: I don’t know. I’d have to ask the lawyers. I’d have to go through a legal process.
Read more: https://t.co/6AI9GksEJV pic.twitter.com/N8PYafS1NN
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) May 28, 2020
Trump has made it very clear throughout his presidency that his goal has always been to control what the American people watch, hear, and read about him. Trump doesn’t want a free press. Trump wants a fawning press.
Twitter should put fact checks on all of Trump and every other political figure’s false tweets. Trump’s 2016 strategy was to use the mainstream press as a megaphone for his lies. The President is running the same campaign in 2020, and he needs to be able to lie in an unchecked way, or else his reelection bid is doomed.
Trump wants to destroy the First Amendment. His Twitter distraction is a shot fired in his war against free speech.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
