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Not long ago, asking tough questions of the President of the United States was just the press doing its job. Ten months later, things have changed. Dramatically. Now, reporters are often browbeaten by the thin-skinned president. Journalists who manage to ask him hard questions should be vaunted, consequences be damned.
To go up against this petulant bully, who will say anything and insult anyone, takes courage, courage few reporters can muster due to fear of reprisal and insufficient support from their bosses. The very existence of a free press is a threat to this president’s modus operandi, which is to govern by lying. Why would he want people around him who ask for facts and truthful answers?
His disdain for a free and independent press sharpens when he feels cornered. The last month of bad news for the president has pushed him to lash out at the media, even more than usual. As he fears losing control of the narrative, he is making the press out to be the villains.
With his electoral defeats, slipping poll numbers, Congress finally finding at least a vertebra of a backbone, and an affordability crisis he doesn’t believe exists, the best he can do is bully those asking tough questions. And female reporters are, once again, bearing the brunt of Trump’s hostility. This tactic is especially rich as the debate about releasing the files of a known sex offender and alleged trafficker continues.
Last Friday during a press gaggle on Air Force One, Bloomberg’s White House correspondent, Catherine Lucey, asked the president why he was fighting the release of the Epstein files “if there’s nothing incriminating.” Trump turned to Lucey, jabbed a finger in her face, and angrily reprimanded her, saying, “Quiet! Quiet, piggy.”
Two days later, an undaunted Lucey asked him about Tucker Carlson’s softball interview with far right-wing Christian nationalist Nick Fuentes. Rather than answer, the back-footed president employed schoolyard taunts. “You are the worst. You’re with Bloomberg, right? You are the worst, I don’t know why they even have you.”
On Wednesday, Trump hosted Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman at the White House. The crown prince has taken responsibility for the assisination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, though he has said he didn’t have prior knowledge of the plot to kill him.
At a press availability in the Oval Office ABC White House correspondent Mary Bruce asked a doozy of a two-part question:
“Is it appropriate, Mr. President, for your family to be doing business in Saudi Arabia while you’re president? Is that a conflict of interest?” She then turned to the prince and said, “Your Royal Highness, the U.S. Intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist — 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? And the same to you, Mr President.”
As you can imagine, this caused the president to roar with indignation as he excoriated Bruce. “Fake news. ABC fake news, one of the worst in the business,” he said. “But I’ll answer your question. I have nothing to do with the family business.”
He wasn’t done. “It’s not the question that I mind; it’s your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions. You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter.”
Trying to save face in front of a crown prince, who lives in a country with zero press freedoms, Trump continued. “You’re mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman [Khashoggi] that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don’t have to embarrass our guest.”
Things happen? Like a Washington Post journalist being lured to the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, murdered and then dismembered with a bone saw? Those things?
He then suggested ABC should lose its broadcast license. Ah, that old chestnut. In today’s political reality, poking the president not only risks a journalist’s job (ask former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta), it also risks the very existence of his or her employer.
A tip of the hat to Lucey and Bruce who have been covering Trump long enough to know that their pointed, timely, and important questions could come at a price.
It is important to note that none of Lucey and Bruce’s fellow journalists came to their defense. “Because access beats out solidarity, every day of the week,” Bill Grueskin, a former editor at The Wall Street Journal and currently a professor at Columbia Journalism School, posted on social media.
It is doubtful that either Lucey or Bruce expected other White House correspondents to say anything. Journalism is, after all, a competitive business. Also, fears about job security are real.
This president has a long history of debasing women in general and female journalists in particular. He is an equal opportunity misogynist, calling dozens of women “nasty”
including his campaign opponents Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, his nemesis Nancy Pelosi, and heads of state like Danish prime minister Metter Fredericksen.
He gets even more craven when maligning women reporters. He called New York Times columnist Gail Collins “frumpy and very dumb.” Others he has labeled “crazy,” “a loser,” “stupid,” and “second-rate.”
In an official statement the White House defended the president’s comments to Lucey. “If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take it,” the statement said. The president needs to take his own advice.
To those journalists who are willing and able to stand up to him, America owes you its support and encouragement.
