Many in the national media are worried that President Trump's continued broadsides against the press will inspire violence against reporters, even as vocal opponents of the White House on the Left have encouraged assault or directly attacked some journalists.
On Trump's rhetoric, New York Times media columnist Jim Rutenberg asked Wednesday night, "How long before someone is seriously hurt, or worse?"
Jim VandeHei, founder of the news website Axios, told Rutenberg for his column that Trump is directly "putting reporters at real risk of retribution or violence."
Trump has long complained about the media's coverage of him as being "unfair" and "fake" but he turned up his aggression during a campaign-style rally Tuesday in Phoenix. There, he vented about the press being "divisive" following the violence in Charlottesville, Va.
"I really think they don't like our country," Trump said of reporters. "I really believe that." He called them "sick people" for not giving him sufficient credit in his denunciation of white supremacists.
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05.15.2024