President Donald Trump reimagined the definition of free speech on Friday, declaring that too much “bad” coverage about him is “really illegal” after threats from his administration led to ABC yanking Jimmy Kimmel’s show off the air.
Trump, when asked by Reuters’ Jeff Mason in the Oval Office if he sees a difference between “cancel culture and consequence culture,” claimed to be a “very strong person for free speech” before alleging, without evidence, that 94% to 97% of newscasts are “against” him.
“The stories are — they said, 97% bad. So, they gave me 97, they’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad. See, I think that’s really illegal, personally,” said the president, who vowed to “immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America” in his inaugural address back in January.
Trump — who made a similar evidence-free claim about network TV criticism of him on Thursday, suggesting that broadcast licenses “should be taken away” for having such coverage — added that reporting “has to be at least accurate, at least accurate to an extent.”
“Again, when somebody is given, 97% of the stories are bad about a person. That’s no longer free speech. That’s no longer anything. That’s just cheating,” he said.
