CNN media reporter Brian Stelter on Wednesday accused President Donald Trump of leading a “hate movement” against establishment media reporters.
Discussing the Trump supporters who heckled CNN reporter Jim Acosta on Tuesday evening before Trump’s rally in Tampa, Florida, Stelter told CNNI’s Hala Gorani, “I think what we are increasingly seeing from the president and his aides and his allies is a hate movement against the American press.”
“When you look at the behavior around Jim Acosta and some of the other reporter at these rallies, you really do see a hate movement,” he insisted.
Stelter said Trump is not just telling his supporters to ignore or not believe the legacy media. Instead, Stelter claimed, Trump’s “really telling people to hate journalists. He’s telling people that journalists are the enemy—literally the enemies of the people.”
“He’s treating the press corps as his opponent because it’s convenient and creates a… perceived enemy for him to attack,” Stelter said. “That really is a hate movement and the results are what we see at these rallies. And because he’s holding rallies more and more often, we are seeing it more and more often.”
Trump said last week that he wants to campaign “six or seven days week” in the weeks leading up to the the midterm elections, and Stelter said Trump’s desire to hold more rallies is why reporters like Acosta are saying that “this is worrisome, someone might get hurt.”
Acosta posted video of Trump supporters heckling him on Tuesday evening and said that he is “very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt.”