‘Donald Trump Will Come For You’: MSNBC’s Ali Velshi Tells Mediaite Trump Win A Threat To Media Critics

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi told Mediaite that a win by ex-President Donald Trump represents a threat to his critics in the media, as well as others to whom he has promised “retribution.”

Velshi was a guest on this week’s edition of Mediaite’s new Press Club podcast, hosted by Aidan McLaughlin.

In their wide-ranging interview, McLaughlin followed up a discussion of Velshi’s experience with police violence by asking if he worries about the stakes of a Trump win:

(W)e’re barreling towards the 2024 election. What do you think the stakes are for journalists if Trump is reelected? Is that something you worry about?

I think about it. Kash Patel, who’s a key Trump spokesperson who may have a cabinet position if Donald Trump becomes president, has said “We will go after journalists, civilly and criminally,” which I think is interesting. What you see in places like the ones you described, other parts of the world — two things. One is they do sometimes go after journalists criminally. This has happened to Maria Ressa in the Philippines, who has won a Nobel Prize for her work in terms of criticizing the government. We hear stories about it at the Committee to Protect Journalists, journalists who walk around their own countries always with a bulletproof vest because they’re worried about the government.

But the harassment is another department. It’s the idea that suddenly you’re getting audited or suddenly your family’s getting phone calls or threats. You don’t have to implement laws. You just have to scare enough journalists off, to say go cover something else. Go back to covering economics like I did, go cover sports, go cover cooking, or whatever the case is. Don’t cover us critically.

This fits into something that Donald Trump has been saying about going after his enemies. He uses the term retribution. “I am your retribution,” which sort of mocks what Mussolini said, “I’m your avenger.” So I do think about this.

I think if you fall into the category of critic, that might mean journalist, might be an opposition leader, might mean prosecutor, might mean witness, might mean juror, might mean anybody. I think there’s some threat that Donald Trump will come for you and the Trump administration will come for you.

Watch above via Mediaite’s new Press Club podcast. Watch the full episode here.

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