NBC News anchor Chuck Todd said “press bashing” is not a fit activity for a president, just moments after President Trump laid into several reporters at the White House in his first solo press conference as president.
Trump assailed the “dishonest” media for doing “a tremendous disservice to the American people.”
After, Todd warned that “this is not a laughing matter.”
He added, “I’m sorry, delegitimizing the press is un-American.”
The anchor also said, “[p]ress bashing may feel good to folks but when it’s done by people in power, it’s corrosive. Take off your partisan hats for a second.”
Press bashing may feel good to folks but when it’s done by people in power, it’s corrosive. Take off your partisan hats for a second
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) February 16, 2017
Presidents have criticized the media in the past, as recently as late last year. In November, after the election, President Barack Obama chastised Fox News for stymying Democrats’ ability to reach voters with their message of progressivism, which contributed to Trump’s victory.
“Part of it is Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country,” Obama told Rolling Stone, while also heaping blame on his party’s failure to effectively operate at the grassroots level.
Trump accused the media for trying to undermine his efforts to shake up the “power structure” of Washington, D.C., and suggested that he held the press conference in part to bring his message, unfiltered, to the American people.
