By Mary Papenfuss
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) gave a staunch defense of the free press Saturday, noting that attacks on the media are “how dictators get started.”
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” to be aired Sunday, McCain took a swipe at President Donald Trump’s
volleys against the Fourth Estate, particularly a Friday tweet in which
the press was called the “enemy of the American people.”
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
“We need a free press,” said the 2008 Republican presidential candidate. “We must have it. It’s vital.”
“If you want to preserve ―
I’m very serious now ― if you want to preserve democracy as we know
it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press,” he added.
McCain said that without a free press, “we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time.”
“That’s how dictators get
started,” he added, noting that attacks on journalists questioning those
in power are a tactic used by autocratic governments.
“When you look at history,
the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press,” he said. “I’m
not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I’m just
saying we need to learn the lessons of history.”
“A fundamental part of that
new world order was a free press,” he added. “I hate the press; I hate
you especially,” McCain quipped. “But the fact is we need you.”
Trump has ratcheted up his
assaults against media organizations in recent weeks, culminating in a
belligerent press conference Thursday in which he excoriated the members
of the press as “fake news.”
McCain, in Germany for the Munich Security conference, has unleashed a series of thinly veiled attacks on the White House.
In a speech before the conference, he slammed a “hardening resentment”
toward “immigrants, and refugees, and minority groups, especially
Muslims” and asked world leaders not to give up on America despite the
country’s current politics.
During a
question-and-answer, the senator said the resignation of Michael Flynn,
Trump’s former national security adviser, showed the administration was “in disarray.”
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