https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-fascist-cnn-msnbc-34865751

President Donald Trump speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (Image: AP)

While speaking at the Justice Department on Friday President Donald Trump made some outlandish comments about the news media, claiming that CNN and MSNBC are arms of the Democratic Party and said that what they are doing is somehow illegal.

“And I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me are political arms of the Democrat Party and in my opinion they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what they do is illegal,” Trump said.

Writing on the social media platform X, journalist Aaron Rupar said in response to Trump’s comments that he has gone “full fascist.”

This is not the first time rump has publicly levied attacks against the free press. Prior to the election, Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS, claiming that a 60 Minutes interview with then Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris was edited in a way to give her an advantage.

The network said that journalists regularly edit interviews for time, space and clarity.

“In making these edits, ‘60 Minutes’ is always guided by the truth and what we believe will be most informative to the viewing public, all while working within the constraints of broadcast television,” the network said.

Despite CBS News’ contention that it did nothing wrong in its editing, the news division’s parent company Paramount is reportedly engaged in settlement talks. Paramount executives are seeking the Trump administration’s approval of a sale to another entertainment firm, Skydance.

Last month, CBS released the unedited transcripts of its October interview with Harris that sparked a lawsuit, saying that they proved its broadcast was not “doctored or deceitful.”

That’s what Trump contended in a $10 billion lawsuit he filed against the network in November, reportedly the subject of ongoing settlement talks.

In a separate track, the Federal Communications Commission last week called for CBS to send transcripts and clips of the interview, which CBS did before making them public on Wednesday. The interview with the Democratic presidential candidate, portions of which were aired on “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation,” attracted attention because clips showed her giving different answers to a question about Israel that was posed by correspondent Bill Whitaker.

Yet CBS said that the material it released show “consistent with ”60 Minutes’” repeated assurances to the public, that the “60 Minutes” broadcast was not doctored or deceitful,” CBS said in a statement.

Trump last year, also settled a lawsuit against ABC News over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.

ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library to settle the defamation lawsuit.