that this is a bigle deal. well, it is and it isn t. and this is not a popular view, but he said that it is what separates leadership from democracies, and a, the public does not care, and b, not being invited to the press briefings does not inhibit our ability to do the job especially with this administration where at the press briefings, they are rife with lies and falsehoods that you don t learn that much. and plus, they are leaking like sieves anyway. and i fear that our indignation at the mistreatment crowds out discussions of things that are much more important like reince priebus po ttential interfering with a fbi inv investigation and i worry about those of us in the proings if being very proud of the profession and role in democracy
to describe all of us as being a quote enemy of the people? well, it is disturbing, and especially given the fact that the constitution makes clear that we have a right to a free press in the united states. i think that what is more disturbing is the rhetoric and the fact that the president specifically callsut news o organizations as fake news, an that he has called out specific reporters at some times. and this idea that the people representatives in the white house in terms of the news media that comes to cover and share n information is the enemy very stran strange. is and so, rich, are we making too much are we making too much of this making too much of the deal of this? reporters being denied access to
a gaggle? well, i think that there is a little bit of, you know, running around with hair on fire about what sean spicer did yesterday. about eliminating the access, but the bigger problem is frankly something that steve bannon said the day before the president spoke at cpac and bannon said that this is a war eve everyday. and he is absolutely serious about that. and this is an example of what bannon sees as the future of the war between the white house and the rest of the world apparently right now. and this is going to get to actually, too, twitter and folks at home with their heads expl e exploded when i asked that question. are we making too big of a deal of this, and it is a big deal, and for the very reason that rich said, between what the president said and the press being the enemy of the people, and steve bannon said at cpac saying this is war, and calling the press the opposition party,
is going to take to peel away the support from donald trump s base from the president trump? is it a lack of jobs? the repeal of obamacare or is it nothing? will they stick with him no matter what? well, trump said that he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and they would still support him, right? and obama care f it were to be repealed which i am doubtful that it will happen,nd that would actually cause a huge rupture in the base given how many trump supporters are themselves beneficiaries of the law, and beyond that, any personal scandals or chaos in the white house, they don t care about it. they care about the kitchen table issues, and if they lose the health insurance, that is a big deal. and coming up, cross-examination pac in the waning moments and what a wild ride it was. that is up next. d krshc c