The incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said this week that when the new Congress is seated in January, Democrats plan to scrutinize whether President Trump abused his power by taking adverse action against three of his favorite punching bags: Amazon, CNN, and the Washington Post.
Watch how the White House press corp cheers and chants Obama as he throws out a reporter:
https://youtu.be/TiAYVRb8j_w
But Obama booted many journalists; how about we investigate why the Dems didn’t investigate Obama? Worse, he used the power of the Executive office to spy on journalists such as James Rosen.
Obama administration spied on Fox News reporter James Rosen: Report
Here’s All the Times Obama Ejected the Media
Political Insider, November 8, 2018:
President Donald Trump’s explosive exchange with Jim Acosta, and the subsequent revocation of his White House press credentials, is now the big story. Naturally, CNN and every other liberal rushed to his defense, and claimed Trump’s hostility towards the media is unprecedented. Ironically, these same liberals loved it when Obama showed disrespect to journalists they disagreed with – they’re just unhappy now they’re feeling the same fire.
Obama ejecting journalists all the time
There were numerous occasions in which Obama (and others in his administration) actually ejected journalists from his press conferences – and of course you didn’t hear hysterical screeching about “dictators” and “fascism” and “the free press being under attack.”
For example, here’s a headline from when President Obama was still “candidate Obama.”
And that’s not all! Not long after taking office, the Secret Service literally dragged away a black female reporter. Imagine the optics if an African-American woman were dragged away by Trump’s Secret Service.
In 2009, former White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest bragged about how well the Obama administration excluded Fox News from significant interviews. Trump has made no such effort to silence anyone. He may be hostile to the press – but he’s hostile to them directly, not behind their backs. I’d argue the latter is much worse.
https://twitter.com/almostjingo/status/1022311846617874437>In 2015 Obama ejected a reporter for interrupting him “in my house,” to the cheers of reporters. Ironically, the journalist (who is transgender) was shouting “no more deportations” at the deporter-in-chief.
Can you imagine the liberal headlines (and faux outrage) if Trump ejected a transgender reporter for protesting deportations?
Another time that year the Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo was kicked out of a media briefing with the State Department… even though he didn’t utter a word. They just didn’t want him there.
The media’s coverage of Obama vs. Trump
As you’d expect, the media covered those incidents much differently than they now cover Trump. Here’s a sampling of the headlines after Obama ejected that reporter in 2015:
- “Obama shuts down reporter: ‘You should know better’” – Politico
- “Obama to White House Heckler: ‘You’re in my house!’” – CNN
- “Watch Obama Toss Out Heckler at LGBT Event: You’re in My House.” – Hollywood Reporter
Unsurprisingly, the commentary about a “war on the press” was lacking. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer showered praise on Obama for how well he handled the situation.
And yet here’s how CNN replied when it was one of their reporters told to shut up (but wasn’t ejected then and there):
Obama relentlessly attacked press freedom and reporters, more than any other President in American history
Again, for as much as Trump criticizes the press, he hasn’t taken actions to obstruct them. The same cannot be said about Obama. Obama’s Justice Department subpoenaed the telephone records of Associated Press journalists, and surveilled Fox News reporter James Rosen, naming him as a co-conspirator in a leak about North Korea’s nuclear program. A similarly named journalist, the New York Times’ James Risin, was targeted by the Obama administration and forced to testify to reveal a confidential source.
Trump may talk a mean game, but Obama was objectively the most anti-press President in modern history. A historic 77% of Freedom of Information Act requests were denied by his administration (more than any other President), and Obama set another record in prosecuting more journalists under the Espionage Act than any other President.
Dems to probe Trump’s treatment of CNN, Amazon, Washington Post in triple-threaded abuse-of-power inquiries
The incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee this week said that when the new Congress is seated in January, Democrats plan to scrutinize whether President Trump abused his authority by taking adverse action against retail giant Amazon and two of his bitter left-leaning media rivals: CNN and The Washington Post.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in an interview with “Axios on HBO” that he and his colleagues will employ committee subpoena powers — which are backed by the legal threat of contempt of Congress — to conduct the triple-threaded inquiry into Trump’s possible use of the “instruments of state power to punish the press.”
Specifically, Schiff charged that Trump “was secretly meeting with the postmaster [general] in an effort to browbeat” her into “raising postal rates on Amazon,” whose founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, separately owns The Washington Post.
“This appears to be an effort by the president to use the instruments of state power to punish Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post,” Schiff said in the interview.
The president signed an executive order earlier this year mandating a review of what he called the “unsustainable financial path” of the United States Postal Service (USPS). And he has reportedly met with Postmaster General Megan Brennan several times to push for hikes to the shipping rates paid by companies like Amazon, although there are no indications he did so to seek political payback.
Trump has long derided the political coverage at the Post, which is fiercely and relentlessly criticial of the White House, as a lobbying tool for Bezos. Most recently, the White House has contradicted the Post’s unequivocal reporting that it had shared a “doctored” video of CNN reporter Jim Acosta making contact with a White House intern during a press conference last week, as a Buzzfeed analysis suggested the changes in the video could have resulted inadvertently from the conversion of the footage to the lower-fidelity .gif format commonly used on Twitter.
But Trump has also feuded specifically with Amazon throughout the year, saying it is taking advantage of taxpayer-subsidized shipping rates.
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Acosta is nothing but an arrogant pig who always treated Trump like garbage! I hope President Trump gets a restraining order against him.
Agreed. Had that WH intern Acosta got physical with been my child or grandchild, Acosta would be wise to keep watch over his shoulder.
The Republic was also without a President for 8 years until one with gigleberries stepped in. mom jeans the mosiem, one of the enemies of the Republic.
Honestly, how any of you Americans wouls even consider voting Democrats is beyond me. For a start, Obama and the Clintons should be behind bars.
Obama is a Saint in the eyes of the rabid far-left MSM.
LOL! Phony Negro. Had no authority to do that because he was NEVER “President”.
Demoncraps thrive on the lie.and the phoniness.
With all the national security issues facing the US, such as Chinese militarism, illegal immigrant caravans, and domestic terrorism, this is all the commiecrats have on their plate?
The media war on Trump began well before his and Melania’s escalator ride to announce his candidacy. Remember during the campaign when the doors had just opened at one of his rally sites and the lamestream media reported the few dozen souls filtering in were the total paltry crowd to attend? Have you seen a Trump rally that the venue was not filled to capacity? Ever?