GOP rep on Trump calling media an enemy: ‘I would call it a political foe’

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) on Thursday said he would use different words for the press than President Trump’s characterization of the media as an “enemy,” but declined to condemn the president’s rhetoric.

Brooks was challenged on CNN’s “New Day” about Trump’s tweet Wednesday that declared “our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!”

Brooks said the tweet did not represent “the verbiage I would use.”

{mosads}

“I would call CNN, and most people in the media who have left-leaning bents, a political foe. Because they tend to be aligned with the Democrats versus the Republicans,” Brooks said.

“To me, enemy is the word that you use when you’re talking about a death row kind of combat,” he continued. “Nazi Germany and the United States. Imperialist Japan and the United States.” 

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota: Are you comfortable with Trump calling the press the US’ “biggest enemy?”

Rep. Brooks: He “has a way of using hyperbole in order to achieve strategic advantage … It might be different from my style but obviously his style works” https://t.co/gwVkdbeKVG

— New Day (@NewDay) June 14, 2018

The Trump administration has had a contentious relationship with the press. The president often deems negative coverage “fake news” and previously labeled the press an “enemy of the American people.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said the administration is “committed to a free press.”

Brooks on Thursday stopped short of admonishing the administration’s attitude toward the media, saying Trump’s style has been successful.

“I’m not one to challenge President Trump in the hyperbole that he uses to achieve the goals he’s trying to achieve for our country,” Brooks said. “It might be different from my style. But, obviously, his style works. He’s president of the United States.”