Radio host Rush Limbaugh says media hand-wringing over PresidentTrump’s outbursts at reporters is absurd since “it’s Republicans who are being fired upon.”
Mr. Trump’s Twitter feed consumed most of Thursday’s news cycle after he mocked MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough as “Psycho Joe” and Mika Brzezinski as “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and then went on to insult Ms. Brzezinski’s looks.
Coverage of the president’s media feuds prompted Mr. Limbaugh to excoriate CNN’s Clarissa Ward and Wolf Blitzer, among others.
“Ward fretted that ’people’ in war zones have been ’emboldened’ by President Trump’s ’declaration of war on the media,’” the conservative said. “Ward, expressing concern for members of the media in dangerous areas of the world, said to guest Chris Cillizza, ’I can only imagine what a person like you is dealing with. At what point does this become reckless or irresponsible?’ … Wolf Blitzer has weighed in on the fact that Trump is endangering the lives of journalists.”
“You know, these people, they can say whatever they want about you. They can trash you, they can libel you, they can slander you, they can make things up, and if you’re a public figure there’s precious little you can do about it. They can impugn you. They can destroy you … You can’t do exposes on them. You can’t do profiles of them … But they can turn around and do anything in the world they want to you.”
Mr. Limbaugh said the proper perspective on political rhetoric must take into consideration the fact that it was Rep. Steve Scalise and other congressional Republicans who survived an assassination attempt on June 16 by left-wing gunman James Hodgkinson.
“And since [Mr. Cillizza] is not a Republican, he’s not in any danger of being shot in Washington, D.C.” or its suburbs, Mr. Limbaugh said. “But now these journalists literally think that Trump is inspiring war-torn areas in the world to start taking potshots at journalists, when it’s Republicans who are being fired upon.”
“There’s no doubt the media is the power and the organizing force in America today behind American liberalism,” the host continued. “It isn’t the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party now is an arm of the media. The media is the nucleus … So you have president that fights back in his own way — not tolerable.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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