Jennings on Threats of Press Lawsuits: Trump Is Well Within Bounds to Play the Game He Thinks Media Is Playing Against Him

ROCHA: “They think because he talks about it over and over again that there’s something crazy going on in the meeting, which I know that there’s not, but he does it every day.”
FISCHER: “But you know who doesn’t agree with him? Core conservatives have traditionally upheld the First Amendment in most cases where they are pressed on it. In fact, that’s the whole TikTok debate right now, right? They want to go to the Supreme Court because they know that a conservative, legislative Supreme Court is much more likely to defend them on First Amendment grounds from a ban. And so one of the challenges Donald Trump has faced is you might bring this to a court and you might have it stacked with conservative judges, but conservative judges tend to side with the First Amendment on these types of things.”
ROCHA: “You just said he wins either way.”
FISCHER: “Well, he wins either way. I’ll tell you this. Even if he loses a case, he wins because he gets to suck the wind out of the media companies he doesn’t like.”
ROCHA: “I’m never going to argue that there’s not commonsense Republicans. I kind of sit here next to this guy almost every week. I make that — we can get to that point, but I’m just saying this is classic 101 Donald Trump.”
PHILLIP: “Yeah, I mean, is he trying to intimidate the media with this strategy?”
JENNINGS: “I think he is well within bounds to play the game that he thinks they’re playing against him, which is to lie about him, to, you know, try to shape the narrative around him in ways that he doesn’t believe are accurate. My belief is, why can’t people just be precise? So, look what happened to ABC. They were not precise in what they said. And you can’t be so flip with this kind of serious information when we’re talking about the public affairs of our country. I mean, I’ve been on TV over the last several years with people who I thought were really loose with their language and how they describe him. I’ve heard it on Pete Hegseth. I’ve heard it a number of times. But when it comes to Republicans, it does feel like to Republicans, that imprecision and, you know, maybe playing a little fast and loose with the edges of things is okay. And Republicans have been waiting for someone to come along and push back on just that that’s the way we have to do it, because we don’t.”
FISCHER: “Can I just push back on that? So, typically, if you aren’t precise, which you’re right, words matter, the order of processes here is that you send a cease and desist letter, you ask for a correction, you ask the network to make you good on air. If you go through those routes and you don’t get your results, that’s when you can get into defamation territory.”
JENNINGS: “And by then, how many months have passed? I mean, these campaigns happen really fast. Here’s the problem. He has bombarded, Republicans are bombarded with what they believe is unfair characterizations of whatever they have going on a minute-by-minute basis. And you want them to go through a six, eight month period?”
Allison: “Like what?”
PHILLIPS: “Well, don’t you — aren’t you worried about a slippery slope here?”
Allison: “Like what? Name them. Name them.”
JENNINGS: “I named one right there.”
PHILLIPS: “Aren’t you worried about a slippery slope here? I’m on the internet every day, you know, Al Gore’s internet, and I see all kinds of smears against Democrats being perpetrated by the new media in conservative circles. Are those folks ready to be sued?”
LAMBERT: “No, that’s not what’s happening here. As Scott said, it’s about holding major media outlets accountable in a game that they’re one-sided on. And that’s the way — it’s not about the money for Trump. It’s not about — he’s not doing that. You know what he probably really wanted to get to and what ABC didn’t want him to see and what he didn’t want the public to see? Was the discovery side of it where maybe there were E-mails internally talking about this and saying, ‘We’re going to say this, we’re going to say that.’ That’s probably the same thing with the Des Moines Register. What kind of communication was going on before that poll was released?”