Unfortunately, threats are part of the job of being a journalist these days. We can handle the trolls and bots and random haters. But we can't ignore that President is actively encouraging hatred of the press.
Trump: Tweeted 109 attacks on Hillary Clinton since reaching presidency
Hating Hillary Clinton is part of the glue that holds the Republican coalition together, so it's perhaps no surprise that Trump has tweeted attacks on Clinton 109 times since reaching the presidency. "Lock her up" remains a regular chant at Trump rallies, long after the election ended.
Sean Hannity: Mentioned Hillary Clinton more than 360 times since Trump inauguration
This obsession has been constantly reinforced by Fox News' prime-time opinion anchors. According to a search of Lexis-Nexis transcripts, Hannity has mentioned Clinton more than 360 times since Trump's inauguration and Tucker Carlson mentioned her more than 290 times.
Trump: Tweeted 137 mentions of Barack Obama since Inauguration Day
It almost goes without saying that Obama has been a constant target of Trump's jabs, with 137 mentions on the presidential twitter feed since Inauguration Day.
Trump: Mentioned Maxine Waters 73 times
But Maxine Waters is nowhere near a national household name. In what should be a reminder to Democrats about giving ammunition for false equivalence, Waters
unwisely and unacceptablycalled for harassment of Republicans by liberal activists. In reaction, Trump has elevated her to "
the face of the Democrats," as well as a
"low I.Q. individual," mentioning her 73 times in speeches, press statements and tweets since March of this year, according to FactBase.
Trump: Slammed John Brennan 30 times
Former CIA Director John Brennan has been an intense critic of the President, and Trump has returned fire, revoking his security clearance and slamming Brennan in 30 tweets and public comments. It's interesting and perhaps instructive that the pipe bomb addressed to Brennan was actually sent to CNN. Brennan, however, is an MSNBC contributor. That the sender doesn't know this easily checkable fact indicates he or she is perhaps getting news from a source other than CNN or MSNBC.
Trump has gone after
Cory Booker 33 times and
James Clapper 20 times. He's called Clapper a "lying machine" and said Booker "ran Newark into the ground" as mayor of that New Jersey city.
The trend continues -- with hits on Eric Holder and Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- but those figures are far more familiar to Fox News viewers than most Americans, given their diminished national role since leaving the Justice Department and chairmanship of the DNC, respectively. Holder, for example, has been mentioned 74 times by Hannity and Carlson's shows since Trump's inauguration.
Liberal billionaire and Democratic donor Soros has been a magnet for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, which have been elevated by the President and Republican members of Congress in recent days, as I discussed in Tuesday's Reality Check.
What about Robert DeNiro? The Oscar-winning actor is not like the other targets. Yes, he infamously said "F--k Trump" at an awards ceremony, but Trump has only tweeted about him twice -- and that was in June. It turns out that Hannity turned his sights on DeNiro less than 10 days ago, telling his audience that DeNiro was "calling the President the devil" on the debut of Alec Baldwin's talk show.
For the record, the
offending phrase DeNiro used was "making a deal with the devil" -- referring to Trump allies he believes are "going to be tainted for the rest of their lives."
This is not only a recent incident that may indicate why DeNiro was top of mind -- time and the investigation will determine that -- but what's particularly fascinating is the way that Hannity is quick to play the victim card, telling his viewers before the DeNiro clip, "I guess we're the irredeemable, deplorable, Walmart smelling, Trump supporting, Bible hugging, loving, gun-loving, you know, clinging into God, guns and religion people. Now the devil."
There's no question we are in a feedback loop of anger, fear and alienation. But the folks who do most to exacerbate those divisions are often the ones quickest to play the victim. And it's almost always done to justify their position and galvanize their support.
In this, President Trump is patient zero.
