WaPo columnist: Trump is ‘fomenting violence’ against journalists

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin said Friday that President Trump is “fomenting violence” against the press.

In a panel appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Rubin, a conservative columnist who has been a vocal critic of Trump, suggested that the president’s frequent verbal attacks on the media helped lead to the deadly shooting at a Maryland newsroom this week.

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“The person who is fomenting violence the most is the president of the United States,” Rubin said. “He turns the crowd on journalists, a hooting, hollering, screaming mass of people. He individually picks out journalists for them to direct their ire.”

“He calls us the enemy of the people, he says that we are unpatriotic, that we do not love our country, and we’re surprised when someone picks up a gun to kill us?” she continued.

Rubin, who has frequently criticized Trump in her “Right Turn” blog for the Post, is not the first journalist to call out Trump’s attacks on the media following the shooting this week at The Capital Gazette.

After Trump condemned the shooting and claimed he has “a lot of respect” for reporters, CNN aired a montage of Trump criticizing the media as “horrible people,” “dishonest” and “fake news” during his speeches and rallies.

Trump referred to the press as “the enemy of the people” at a rally earlier this week.

Updated: 12:18 p.m.