Actor Rob Reiner wants to know why Republicans who “love the country” won’t “stand up” against President Donald Trump who the Hollywood director says is a “childish sociopathic liar” for attacking the media.
Taking to Twitter on Thursday, the All In The Family star pleaded for a Republican to stand up to President Trump over his attacks on the media.
“Democracy is being tested. The rule of law and the press are under attack by a childish sociopathic liar,” Reiner said. “Congressional checks and balances have been obliterated. All it would take is one principled Republican, not on the way out, to stand up for the love of country.”
But, while President Trump has constantly ridiculed the press by calling them “fake news,” he has taken no steps as president to prevent the media from doing its job, like his predecessor Barack Obama did.
During his eight years in office, Barack Obama was called one of the worst presidents for press freedom in U.S. history.
In 2013, for instance, former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr., called Obama the “most closed, control-freak administration” he ever covered, adding that at that time Obama had prosecuted more people who had worked as whistleblowers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all former presidents combined.
Indeed, Obama was slammed as “cuckoo” by James Goodale, the chief counsel for The New York Times. Goodale called Obama’s actions the most “antediluvian, conservative, backward. Worse than Nixon. He thinks that anyone who leaks is a spy! I mean, it’s cuckoo,” he said.
Obama repeatedly closed White House events to the press, stonewalled FOIA requests, prosecuted numerous journalists and their sources, secretly wiretapped the Associated Press, and more. By 2014, the organization Reporters Without Borders had dropped America in its World Press Freedom Index from 33rd to 46th place. It was a fall of 13 spots at the time.
Even some of Rob Reiner’s Hollywood compatriots noted how bad Obama was for the press.
In 2015, Bill Maher, no fan of the right, said Obama was “perhaps the worst president” in history for his treatment of the press. And in December of 2016, comedian Jon Stewart slammed Obama as “terrible for press freedom.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.