Felon Vows To Prosecute Outlets That Displease Him

NewsNation reports:

President Donald Trump gave an unprecedented speech at the Department of Justice, delivering a political speech at an agency where presidents have usually attempted to maintain a distance to avoid politicizing it.

While previous presidents have spoken at the department to announce policy changes or crime-fighting initiatives, Trump delivered a purely political speech that included repeats of topics he often used in campaign rallies.

In an unprecedented statement, Trump suggested that criticisms of judges and the legal courts should be illegal, and it should also be illegal for the press to describe the elections in any way that is different than how he characterizes his victory.

CBS News reports:

Mr. Trump referred to a “corrupt group of hacks and radicals within the ranks of the American government” who he said had “obliterated” trust and goodwill over generations, but promised “those days are over” and are “never coming back.” Opening his remarks, he said the Justice Department is starting a “proud new chapter in the chronicles of American justice.”

“We’re turning the page on four long years of corruption, weaponization and surrender to violent criminals,” Mr. Trump claimed. “And we’re restoring fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.”

The president praised one of the judges in those cases during his remarks. Mr. Trump said federal judge Aileen Cannon, who he appointed during his first term and who ultimately dismissed the classified documents case against him, as “the absolute model of what a judge should be.”

The Hill reports:

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

He also claimed the media outlets work in coordination and that their reporting is able to influence the opinions of judges. “These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative,” Trump said.

“And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really, eh, changing law and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal and they do it in total coordination with each other,” he added.

The New York Times reports:

“Scum,” Mr. Trump called his adversaries — in the same room where Attorney General Robert Jackson delivered a famous 1940 speech urging prosecutors be animated by “fair play” rather than a blind drive to win.

Mr. Trump, who was twice indicted by the Department of Justice, has long viewed the agency as the center of “deep state” resistance to him.

The event had many trappings of a Trump campaign rally, including the warm-up playlist, even if set against the backdrop of the department’s marble-clad inner sanctum. The setting was part of an effort to emphasize the power of the institution Mr. Trump controls through loyal and compliant appointees.

CNN’s Jake Tapper just noted on-air that in the same breath in which Trump raged about a “weaponized” justice system, he vowed to himself weaponize that same system against reporters and outlets that serve up anything other than lavish praise.