When Donald Trump talks about using government power to go after his perceived political foes, he doesn’t just refer to current and former officials. In recent months, for example, the former president has repeatedly raised the specter of using federal powers to crack down on news organizations that report information he doesn’t like.
People close to the Republican keep suggesting that Team Trump is quite serious about this. The New York Times reported:
A confidant of Donald J. Trump who is likely to serve in a senior national security role in any new Trump administration threatened on Tuesday to target journalists for prosecution if the former president regains the White House. The confidant, Kash Patel, who served as Mr. Trump’s counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council and also as chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense, made the remarks on a podcast hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former strategist, during a discussion about a potential second Trump presidency beginning in 2025.
“We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media,” Patel said. “Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections — we’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”
He went on to say, “We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
Patel didn’t appear to be kidding.
In fairness, it’s worth noting that a spokesperson for Patel told the Times that in the same on-air appearance, the former Trump administration official would “follow the facts and the law.” Patel himself said in a written statement, “When President Trump takes office in 2025, we will prosecute anyone that broke the law and end the weaponized, two tier system of justice.”
In reality, our system of justice has…
Read the full article here