{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-cohen-condemns-president-trump-s-statements-attacking", "Ranking Member Cohen Condemns President Trumps Statements Attacking the Freedom of the Press", "2017-10-12", "2017", "2017-10", "Democrat", "House", "TN", "Steve Cohen", "C001068", "cohen.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "[WASHINGTON, D.C.] \u2014 Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, today condemned President Trump\u2019s recent tweets challenging the license of NBC and other news networks and his comments attacking the freedom of the press during his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office. During the meeting with the Prime Minister, President Trump said, \u201cIt is frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write.\u201d\n\u201cPresident\u2019s Trump\u2019s recent statements and tweets attacking the freedom of the press and NBC News are a direct attack on the First Amendment and continue a dangerous pattern of the President undermining the Constitution,\u201d said Congressman Cohen. \u201cJames Madison said the \u2018freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.\u2019 Yet this President has continued to make statements and act in a way to disrespect and delegitimize the press. He has referred to numerous media outlets as \u2018fake news,\u2019 he has called the New York Times the \u2018failing New York Times,\u2019 and has called the Washington Post the \u2018Amazon Washington Post.\u2019 President Trump retweeted a GIF of himself wrestling the CNN logo and has taken to twitter to attack media personalities such as Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and Megyn Kelly. He excluded American journalists from covering his meeting with the Russian Ambassador and Foreign Minister and has limited video and audio access to White House press briefings. President Trump even went as far as to call the press \u2018the enemy of the American people.\u2019 President Trump\u2019s reckless, authoritarian-like attacks on the legitimacy and accuracy of the press are alarming. Attacks on the press, along with attacks on the courts, are the first signs of fascism. Keeping the citizenry informed with accurate information about government actions is vital for the effective functioning of democratic government and for ensuring the ultimate sovereignty of the people over their leaders.\u201d\nIn July, Congressman Cohen, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), and Congressman Mark Sanford (R-SC) hosted a bipartisan forum on freedom of the press entitled, \u201cThe State of Press Freedom in 21stCentury America.\u201d You can watch the forum here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-cohen-condemns-president-trump-s-statements-attacking"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.951515045017004, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}