Trump says some journalists ‘should be arrested,’ escalating attack on free press

President Donald Trump said on his social media platform Monday that The New York Times and other outlets he called "Artificial Media Outlets" should be arrested over their coverage of his crowds. MS NOW commentator Steve Benen argues that the remark deserves serious attention, since a sitting president is publicly endorsing arrests of reporters over stories the White House dislikes, amid what Benen describes as a broader campaign against the free press and frequent talk of treason.

The outburst followed coverage of sparsely filled venues at recent Trump rallies in Alabama, Ohio and Oklahoma. After the Alabama event, the Times reported that the indoor arena was well below the size of the football stadium he once filled and still had empty upper sections. Trump insisted the Ohio arena was packed, claimed thousands of people were turned away, and said the paper was wrong to report vacant seats. In a second post he asserted that any empty seats resulted from supporters leaving their places to get closer to him. He had made similar claims for weeks about his midterm convention in Dallas, even though people inside the arena documented unoccupied seats.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →