CNN political analyst David Gergen said on Wednesday evening that blood will be on President Donald Trump’s hands if there is any violence committed against mainstream media reporters.
Speaking to host Anderson Cooper about Trump supporters who heckled and chanted “CNN sucks” at CNN reporter Jim Acosta before Trump’s Tuesday evening rally in Tampa, Florida, Gergen accused Trump of using “Stalinist” language for calling left-wing journalists in the establishment media “enemies of the people.”
“If you put that together, which has a mob quality to it, and the culture of gun violence, that is a very combustible mix,” Gergen said. “What we saw last night and what we saw frequently at Sarah Palin rallies way back when… If there is violence against any reporter that’s tied to this, the blood is going to be on his hands.”
Gergen added that he thinks Trump is “not terribly familiar” with the Constitution except for the Second Amendment and that “it doesn’t take much” for potential violence against journalists.
Acosta said on Tuesday evening that he is “very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt.” He said on Wednesday that he did not feel like he was in America while covering Trump’s Tampa rally.
“I mean, honestly, it felt like we weren’t in America anymore. I don’t know how to put it any more plainly than that. Americans should not be treating their fellow Americans in this way,” Acosta said.