President Donald Trumpâs administration on Sunday continued its assault on press freedom and attacks on the media, with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus reiterating Trumpâs desire to make it easier to sue media outlets who publish stories unfavorable to the president.
âI think itâs something we have looked at, and how that gets executed or whether that goes anywhere is a different story,â Priebus told ABCâs Jonathan Karl. âBut when you have articles out there that have no basis or fact, and weâre sitting here on 24/7 cable companies, writing stories about constant contacts with Russia, and all these other matters.â
In his attacks against the media throughout his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed that he would âopen up our libel lawsâ in order to âhave people sue you like youâve never got sued before.â
âIâm going to open up our libel laws, so when [newspapers] write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money,â Trump said last year. âWhen The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because theyâre totally protected.â
As president, Trump made the threat again last month, after criticizing âthe failingâ New York Times.
âYou think the president should be able to sue The New York Times for stories he doesnât like?â Karl asked Priebus on Sunday, referring to Trumpâs tweet.
âI think that newspapers and news agencies need to be more responsible with how they report the news,â Priebus said. âIâm so tired.â
When Karl pointed out that there is a difference between critiquing media outletsâ coverage and suing them, Priebus launched into a tirade about reporting on the FBI investigation into the Trump campaignâs ties to Russia, which the administration has repeatedly tried to deny.
âI think this is a frustration of unnamed sources, of things that the FBI has told me personally [are] complete b.s. written in a newspaper article, in my office one on one, âThis here is not true,ââ Priebus said. âAnd guess what? It is sitting there on the front page, so how is it possible? And what do we have, 24/7 cable about a story about intelligence that the actual intelligence agency says is not true, and yet we deal with it every day.â
When Trump refers to âopening up libel laws,â it is not entirely clear what he means and whether he has the authority to do so. As HuffPostâs Cristian Farias noted last year, libel laws are controlled by individual states. The only change the president could make would be to amend the First Amendment, which he cannot do on his own and which ensures important protections for press freedom.
But of course, that has not stopped Trump from making threats against and undermining the media, a staple of his campaign and presidency so far. On Saturday night, he renewed his attacks against the âfake newsâ media at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.