Donald Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, which he launched to allow him to rage against his successor and perceived enemies daily, to lash out at MSNBC for daring to be critical of the former President. You can't make this stuff up. On top of that, Trump falsely claimed that MSNBC "uses FREE government approved airwaves."
"MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE," he wrote. "Brian Roberts, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years."
"It is the world's biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country," he added. "Our so-called "government" should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!"
The guy who wants back in the White House wants the government to come down on a network "hard" because they hurt his tender feelings.
MSNBC's Chris Hayes said he doesn't know what "triggered" Trump's post and noted that Trump doesn't understand the difference between broadcast and cable. Hayes warned viewers that Trump is speaking of his intent and that he should be taken seriously because Trump's "whining" could turn "into real punitive action."
Brian Stelter, who has been the brunt of attacks from Trump supporters during his time with CNN, weighed in.
"I worked at CNN at the time. Before the election in 2016, Donald Trump said on the campaign trail that he would try to stop the deal from happening, stop A&T from buying Time Warner," he said. "Then, once he was elected and the deal progressed through the government regulatory system, the Trump DOJ tried to block it. Went to federal court. Delayed by more than a year. AT&T stood up to the DOJ, was actually willing to fight."
"They were able to win in court, and the merger happened. But at great cost," he continued. "It delayed the indie battle against Netflix in the streaming wars. There's a significant amount of evidence that, behind the scenes, Donald Trump was trying to punish AT&T for owning CNN."
"Basically, for whatever reason, they stood up to Trump," Hayes said. "They stood up to whether it was their principles, the dollars that play, whatever business, they said no."
"I know the executives at Comcast in Philly; they don't get rattled by a Truth Social post," Stelter said. "We are seeing this with other media companies. As you said, CNN -- Hungary, Turkey, when the state comes in and takes regulatory action, takes legal action, uses an IRS, a branch of the government to punish a media company, and sometimes you take that media company off the playing field. It is a very real thing."
"That squeeze, to be clear, yes, the First Amendment is here. The way the squeezes worked in places like -- I don't think there are robust democracies as America, but when they started, the IRS now has opened a case on your back taxes, or new legislation that regulates and duties that deliver an item to more than 10 million households every day," Hayes said. "Those are the newspapers. Lo and behold, you are paying fines and fees, and someone comes along and says, why don't I buy that from? You, Rupert Murdoch, why don't I take it off your hands? That person is a buddy of the President."
Trump turning the screws.
"Comcast is an infrastructure company, broadband, tens and millions of others," Stelter said. "You could imagine the way Trump could try to turn the screws. It's not just Comcast. It is any large -- still CNN, all these players. On one level, Trump's post is just the weather. Stormy today, sunny tomorrow."
'You will write about someone else tomorrow. On another level, a severe thunderstorm warning. It is a warning about what he will do if he regains power,' he added. "That's why I think it is more notable than when he was in power and tried to punish AT&T, or in power and tried to punish the Washington Post or Jeff Bezos. Back then, he would tweet and go after AT&T, and no one would care. The stock would go up that day. It was meaningless. This time, as a campaign promise he's making to his voters."
Yup, now he's making it a campaign promise. The problem is that his supporters don't care. They care about democracy as much as they did on Jan. 6.
