Sam Donaldson, a former ABC News White House correspondent, denounced President Trump’s wholesale attack on the media, saying that history shows that would-be tyrants always try to quash the media as he wrote in a CNN op-ed.
“Trump’s wholesale attack on the mainstream press is wrong, and it is dangerous. History shows that tyrants and would-be tyrants always attempt to destroy a free press. And that is why the First Amendment to out Constitution,” said Donaldson.
According to The Hill, Donaldson went on to note that almost every president he covered during his 52 years as a journalist “fundamentally understood and accepted the important role of the press.’’ The one exception, he said, was former President Nixon.
“Compared to what I see today, my time covering Presidents and their press secretaries was a cakewalk. I’ve had the pleasure of working with almost every press secretary beginning with Pierre Salinger in the John F. Kennedy administration. And except for former press secretary Ron Ziegler, who lied for Richard Nixon, I’ve never seen anything like this with Sarah Sanders,’’ said Donaldson.
He also said that the behavior of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was worse than Ziegler’s because Ziegler only lied about whether Nixon tried to cover up the burglary at the Watergate hotel.
“But if you asked him a question about foreign policy, domestic policy, he would try to say what he thought the facts were, and it would be often truthful,’’ stated Donaldson. “She deserves a lifetime achievement Oscar for lying. I don’t know her. I feel a little sorry for her. It’s the boss who does it. She takes the cue from him.’’
According to the Mueller report, Sanders told investigators that she made false statements about the dismissal attributing them to a slip of the tongue. The day when the report was released, Sanders told Fox News:
“I acknowledge that I had a slip of the tongue when I used the word ‘countless’ but it’s not untrue … that a number of both current and former FBI agents agreed with the president.’’
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