Brooks: Trump Attacks on Press, ‘Highlighted’ By Enemies of the People Line, ‘Straight Out of the Fascist Playbook’

On Friday’s broadcast of “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated of President Trump, “the attack on the press, highlighted by the tweets today saying, that my newspaper, NBC, all these organizations are enemies of the people. Well, if you want to draw rhetoric straight out of the fascist playbook, we’re enemies of the vote, the people, that is like — that has so many historical echoes.”

Brooks said, “The press conference was its own thing. It’s like some exploding nebula of madness. I thought it was just mildly deranged, just the epitome of nonlinear thinking. Let’s put it that way.”

He later added that the presser was “unmoored.” Brooks further stated, “He is speaking as someone who’s involved in a junior high school gladiatorial attack on the press. And parts were bizarre and somewhat offensive, picking on an African-American reporter and assuming she knew people in the Congressional Black Caucus, because I guess all African-American people are supposed to know each other. That’s offensive. But then the attack on the press, highlighted by the tweets today saying, that my newspaper, NBC, all these organizations are enemies of the people. Well, if you want to draw rhetoric straight out of the fascist playbook, we’re enemies of the vote, the people, that is like — that has so many historical echoes. It’s illiberal and offensive to the way democracy is supposed to work and how one is supposed to just act within the institutions of democracy. So, within that context, I think some strong language, to me, is merited.”

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