SE Cupp: Trump's attacks on the free press are a “tactic to make the American public... paranoid, afraid, distrusting”

Conservative HLN host Cupp: “President Trump has been trying to undermine the stability and the trust of the free press ... That way he can be the voice”

From the October 5 edition of CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper:

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JAKE TAPPER (HOST): Earlier today, President Trump tweeted “why isn't the Senate Intelligence Committee looking into the fake news networks in our country,” -- I don't know why that's -- oh, our country as opposed to Russia I suppose -- “in our country to see why so much of our news is just made up. Fake!” And here is Sarah Sanders' response to that tweet. 

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: With the First Amendment, with those freedoms also come responsibilities. And you have a responsibility to tell the truth, to be accurate. 

TAPPER: That is true. 

SE CUPP: Yep.

TAPPER: We do have a responsibility to tell the truth and be accurate. Does President Trump have that same responsibility? 

CUPP: Apparently not, the president feels as though he is in the position, the unique position, of verifying news. We saw it when it came to that Rex Tillerson quote. He said, well I didn't verify it, so it didn't happen. Well, he also wasn't in the room, he said it behind your back. And we had multiple sources confirming it. That's the way journalism and reportage works. 

TAPPER: And confirming that he knew about it, confirming that President Trump knew about it. 

CUPP: Right, but this is a much bigger problem as we know. President Trump has been trying to undermine the stability and the trust of the free press. And he's done that not just in the press, but in a lot of institutions and it's a tactic to make the American public, American citizenry paranoid, afraid, distrusting. That way he can be the voice. And only he can be the voice that most people trust. So it is deeply, deeply disturbing and dangerous when he says things like this because people believe him. 

Previously:

White House press secretary equates unflattering press accounts of Trump to fake news peddled by Russians

CNN highlights Trump's hypocrisy in lamenting “opinion” journalism while relying on “his friends” at Fox

The Trump Administration's war on the press