Donald Trump is asking Republicans in the Senate to squash a bill that would protect journalists from being forced to reveal their sources.
The Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act would make a current Department of Justice rule barring prosecutors from compelling the release of journalists’ sources into federal law. The bill passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives with unanimous support in January. Currently held up in the Senate, the bill came to Trump’s attention after a segment on the act aired on “PBS NewsHour.”
He shared that clip along with an all-caps order on Truth Social Wednesday.
“REPUBLICANS MUST KILL THIS BILL!” he wrote.
Railing against the freedom of the press is nothing new for Trump. He spent a significant chunk of his time on the campaign trail, griping about perceived unfair coverage from media outlets and threatening the press.
The president-elect filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS last month, taking issue with the way that the network edited portions of a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. In the lead-up to that litigation, Trump called for the network’s broadcast license to be revoked.
“CBS should lose its license, and it should be bid out to the Highest Bidder, as should all other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS – and maybe even WORSE!” he wrote on Truth Social in October.
Elsewhere, he called journalists the “enemy of the people” and gleefully imagined someone shooting through the press area of his campaign rally to get to him.
“All we really have over here is the fake news, right? And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news,” Trump said. “And I don’t mind that so much.”
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