the spot if they disrespected others. of course the rules, they don t apply to joe. and his comments about peter ducey are especially ridiculous, given that biden s own weakened mental abilities by the way, all those people in the back are fake news. there s sean, trump s mouth piece. now, given trump wants to run again and will likely have the full support of fox and the rest of the right wing echo chamber, what could that mean for the fate of the free press? it s an important question tonight. i want to bring in media attorney ted boutrous. great to see you, as always. i must note ted actually represented me when trump tried to take my press pass away at the white house. we got it back. we beat trump. but, ted, i was thinking of sending a fainting couch over to fox news in their studios, but i figure they had plenty of those, along with some pearls to clutch. your thoughts?
president attack and malign the free press like joe biden has. i need some pearls to clutch. i actually may be able to help congressman jim banks figure it out as we travel back in time next. for back pain, i ve always been a take two and call in the morning guy. but my new doctor recommended salonpas. without another pill upsetting my stomach, i get powerful, effective and safe relief. salonpas. it s good medicine. growing up in a little red house, on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i ve come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go.
and that makes it so we re in an ir rational society and democracy just can t function. so, if we have a replay, if this continues, it s going to hurt everybody. it s going to hurt republicans. it s going to hurt all journalists, all commentators. it really needs to stop if we want to preserve the country that we have. and what about these lines being blurred between those in trump media and trump government? you know, he enlisted fox news anchors as his advisers, hannity, ingram and so on. he hired a former fox exec bill shine to run his communication shop at the white house, had robert els helping him with the debate in 2016. it goes on and on. if trump or someone like trump were to take office in 2024, how much further can we see that line get blurred between the government and the media? and what does that mean for the first amendment, for the free press in this country? i mean, it was almost becoming like a state tv type situation
i mean, we just saw trump he drove all of these attacks against the media. what happens to the media, do you think, if trump runs again and wins? well, jim, it was very amazing. it s great to be with you, and it brought back a lot of memories. i think what we re going to see are continued attacks on the press. the legitimate news gathering that s so important. the supreme court has said over and over again, including in citizen s united, a case that conservatives like and liberals don t like, that the first amendment protects the ability of citizens to hold the powerful accountable, to get the information they need to govern themselves. and so this disinformation campaign coupled with attacks on the press is really harmful to our democracy, which is, i guess, the topic of this entire show. no question about it. and what about this anti-press sentiment that s taken hold inside the gop over at fox? that s just not going anywhere.
and what does that mean for news organizations here in the united states? i mean, i guess i should say around the world because as you and i both know, ted we ve talked about this there are so many regimes around the world that have adopted trump s name calling, calling news organizations fake news and using things like the enemy of the people to defame journalists and so on. it s very, very troubling and very dangerous. it em boldens leaders around the world to abuse the press, to clamp down on the press. the republican party most republicans in office in running for office, part of their brand is to denigrate and dely jit mize the press. the harmful thing is that makes it so that citizens don t believe what some of the best reporters and journalists in the world are telling them based on their news gathering activity. but they re believing the disinformation, the lies about the 2020 election, the lies about covid.