Capital Gazette shooting survivor: Trump tweet attacking the media ‘makes me fear for my life’

One of the survivors of the Capital Gazette newsroom shooting said Wednesday that President Trump’s frequent tweets attacking the media make her fear for her life.

Rachael Pacella is one of the journalists who survived the attack on the Annapolis, Md., newspaper last June. Five of her colleagues were shot and killed.

{mosads}“As one of six survivors of our nation’s only newsroom mass shooting, seeing generalized media-bashing tweets from the president makes me fear for my life,” Pacella tweeted. “His words have power, and give bad actors justification to act.”

The reporter was responding to one of the president’s morning tweets blasting the “dishonest” press.

As one of six survivors of our nation’s only newsroom mass shooting, seeing generalized media-bashing tweets from the president makes me fear for my life. His words have power, and give bad actors justification to act. https://t.co/9NZ2WByB7i

— Rachael Pacella (@rachaelpacella) February 20, 2019

The reporter added that she wanted to share a video of the snow falling over Annapolis from the window of their temporary office.

“And then I realized I couldn’t post it, because it would reveal our location,” Pacella wrote. “These are the things I have to think about every single day.”

It’s snowing here, so I hopped up to shoot a video of snow falling over Annapolis from the window of our temporary office. It’s gorgeous.

And then I realized I couldn’t post it, because it would reveal our location.

These are the things I have to think about every single day.

— Rachael Pacella (@rachaelpacella) February 20, 2019

The president criticized The New York Times the day after it published an extensive report about Trump had attacked the investigations of his administration. The story reported that Trump sought to put a U.S. attorney who had recused himself from the investigation into Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen in charge of that investigation because he believed the U.S. attorney would be loyal to him.

Trump has denied that part of the story and labeled the outlet the “true enemy of the people” in a tweet on Wednesday, claiming that reporters “don’t even call asking for verification.”

Maggie Haberman, the Times journalist who co-authored the report, called Trump’s accusation a “lie.” 

“They chose not to engage, and afterwards, the president acts surprised,” she continued. “Whether his aides are not telling him what we are looking at or whether this is a game and he knows what it is and he’s pretending, I can’t read his mind. We certainly follow normal reporting practices and went over it at length with the White House and the Department of Justice.”