CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — To top Republicans, the obstacle to President Trump’s reelection is not disapproval over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, worries that the economy will not rebound enough before Nov. 3 to ease voters’ views, or swing voters’ repulsion at the president’s bombastic style.
They single out the news media as the greatest threat that could jeopardize another four years of a Republican White House.
Delegate after delegate who attended the Republican National Committee and GOP convention in-person meetings in Charlotte, North Carolina, told the Washington Examiner that the news media is Trump’s No. 1 problem as the fall fight fast approaches.
Harriet Hageman of Wyoming told the Washington Examiner that when it comes to Trump’s chances of securing a second term, she is most worried about “propaganda from the press.”
“The biggest challenge is the lies from the media and the Big Tech censorship of Republicans and conservatives across the board,” Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward said in an interview.
Rick Rich, a delegate from Minnesota, echoed the pair’s complaints, saying, “honesty, or lack thereof, by the media” is his overriding concern.
“The mainstream media, in my observation, is really nothing more than a cheerleader for the Democratic Party,” he said. “And that’s not fair reporting, that’s journalistic malfeasance. They should be embarrassed. They have low integrity.”
Michigan Republican Chairwoman Laura Cox claimed that she isn’t worried about anything when it comes to Trump’s reelection, before adding that “we people need to understand” the president’s accomplishments and the Biden-Harris policies. Cox’s Pennsylvania counterpart, Lawrence Tabas, agreed.
“I wish he could come and make a lot of visits because that energizes the people, and they get to hear him directly without being filtered through the media. I mean, they don’t give him credit for anything,” Tabas said of Trump.
Media-bashing is a favorite pastime for Republicans in the Trump era. Several speeches at the GOP convention have targeted the news media for their coverage of the president and conservatives.
During the opening night’s program, laden with overtures to Trump’s base, Missouri’s Mark and Patricia McCloskey spoke to their “cancel culture” experience. The St. Louis couple was vilified on social media and in the press after they brandished firearms at protesters demonstrating in their gated community this summer following George Floyd’s death.
“If you stand up for yourself and for the values our country was founded on, the mob, spurred on by their allies in the media, will try to destroy you,” Mark McCloskey said.
The McCloskeys’ message was reiterated by Andrew Pollack, who lost his daughter in the 2018 Parkland high school shooting. Pollack said the news media is not interested in facts.
“The media turned my daughter’s murder into a coordinated attack on President Trump, Republicans, and the Second Amendment,” he said.
During the second night, criticizing the news media was not just a compulsion, but a major theme and argument in favor of returning Trump to the White House.
Nicholas Sandmann, one of the featured speakers, is the Kentucky teenager who was denounced online and in press reports after he wore a red “Make America Great Again” hat and stood his ground during a confrontation last year with a Native American activist on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Both the Washington Post and CNN earlier this year settled defamation lawsuits that Sandmann brought against them.
“The full war machine of the mainstream media revved up into attack mode,” Sandmann said, retelling his callout culture story. “The truth was not important. Advancing their anti-Christian, anti-conservative, anti-Donald Trump narrative was all that mattered. And if advancing their narrative ruined the reputation and future of a teenager from Covington, Kentucky, well, so be it.”
The president’s youngest daughter, Tiffany Trump, whom he had with second wife Marla Maples, also homed in on the news media.
“Even the choice of who we are voting for may, and are, being manipulated and visibly coerced by the media and tech giants. If you tune into the media, you get one biased opinion or another,” she said.
And then, first lady Melania Trump capped the night off by telling a small crowd gathered in the redesigned Rose Garden of the White House she didn’t “want to use this precious time attacking the other side.” Instead, she chided the news media for pushing content “filled with gossip” rather than highlighting issues, such as “the nation’s drug crisis.”
“No matter the amount of negative or false media headlines or attacks from the other side, Donald Trump has not and will not lose focus on you,” she said. “Despite the unprecedented attacks from the media and opposition, he will not give up.”
Trump supporters and the news media have had a strained relationship since the president’s 2016 campaign. During that contest, he elevated the phrase “fake news.” A Pew Research Center report last December found that Republicans are now more likely than Democrats to say journalists lack ethics. In fact, 2 in 5 Republicans who strongly approve of the president share that belief.
While Republicans distrust the news media at higher rates, all outlets are not created equal. Fox News drew on Monday the highest-rated delivery of a GOP convention’s opening night in cable news history. More than 7.1 million viewers tuned into the network’s broadcast.
