Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Rebuking Trump’s Unconstitutional White House Media Ban

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor rebuking Donald Trump's unconstitutional White House media ban, which was blocked today by a federal judge. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

You can tell Trump's desperate, repressive media ban is flagrantly unconstitutional when it gets blocked by a judge he appointed.

Trump can attack the First Amendment all he wants, but the roots of our democracy run deeper than he could ever fathom.

No president should be able to use censorship to escape accountability, to deprive Americans of the truth, and to take our country down the path to authoritarianism.

Is Trump so fragile, so thin-skinned, so desperate that he can't handle reporting that reflects the truth that he doesn't want to hear?

If Trump's presidency and economy are going as well as he claims they are, he should have nothing to fear from the cameras.

We all know what this media ban was about: Trump himself told the real truth when he said he was trying to protect his reputation with this ban. To protect his reputation. Can you believe it? The chutzpah of a president to say, I'm going to shut down the media because I don't like what they're saying when he knows that 250 grand years of freedom of speech has been the hallmark of this country.

Of course, his statements were so out of line, and even his supporters criticized it that Trump then had to backtrack by trying to label these news outlets a so-called national security risk.

No one bought that excuse for a second.

The only thing Trump was trying to defend was himself.

Trump knows he's in rough shape. He knows the American people are furious with him and his party. And he knows just how much of a disaster his record is.

Since Trump can't clean up his mess, he tried to sweep it under the rug and he failed miserably. Trump can't outrun the press, and he can't outrun his record. You hear that, Donald? You can't outrun the press, and you can't outrun your miserable record.

###