[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 20 (Monday, February 6, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S952-S954]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



         Trump Administration and the Judiciary and Free Press

  More than that, I feel compelled to talk a little bit about President

[[Page S953]]

Trump's attacks on the judiciary and free press over the last several 
weeks since he has been sworn into office, since he has taken the oath 
of office to be President of the United States. He has repeatedly 
undermined the credibility of Federal judges doing their constitutional 
duty to uphold the rule of law simply because he disagrees with them.
  The Vice President said the other day: There is a tradition in 
America of one branch of government criticizing another branch of 
government. There is no tradition, that I am aware, of a President 
meddling in an ongoing case in an article III court.
  Just today, he called our courts ``political.'' That is about the 
most damaging thing you could say about our independent judiciary. He 
said that last night's Federal appellate hearing was ``disgraceful.'' A 
decision hasn't even been rendered in the case, and he is saying it is 
``disgraceful.''
  Earlier this week, he accused what he called ``dishonest'' American 
journalists of, his word, ``ignoring'' terrorist attacks in the name of 
some unnamed hidden agenda.
  I wish to say, I sat through the last speech at some length, and I 
want to make sure I get it on the record; so through the Chair, I beg 
the indulgence of my colleagues for a few more minutes.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the editorial be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                  [From the Denver Post, Feb. 6, 2017]

         With Latest Bashing, Lying Trump Gets Sinister Indeed

                  (By The Denver Post Editorial Board)

       Donald Trump's weekend bashing of a federal judge, and 
     Monday's attack of news organizations for supposedly sharing 
     a hidden agenda with terrorists, goes way too far, and would 
     seem out-there crazy if it weren't also rather frightening.
       Where to begin? Let's hope that President Trump wasn't 
     aware of an imminent terror plot in his rush to slam down his 
     refugee and travel ban. For if he was, his approach to the 
     threat has backfired so horrendously it could be some time 
     before his administration is able to reinstate it, or, 
     hopefully, a more thought-out version. Now that Judge James 
     Robart rendered the travel and refugee order unenforceable, 
     it is likely that the matter won't be resolved until it makes 
     it to a divided U.S. Supreme Court, where its chances could 
     meet the futility of deadlock.
       We hope Trump sees the error in his strategy. Even for the 
     president of the United States, working to achieve on-the-
     ground results within our massive federal government takes 
     skill, and some buy-in from those charged with making it so.
       Trump's order had none of that. Officials in all the 
     relevant agencies knew too little about it until it went into 
     effect. No wonder lawsuits resulted, and that one of them 
     persuaded a judge to block the order.
       Sadly, Trump doesn't appear to have gotten the message. 
     Just as he did on the campaign trail, when he insulted a 
     judge by claiming his Mexican heritage disqualified him to 
     rule in a case involving Trump University, Trump attacked 
     Judge Robart. ``Just cannot believe a judge would put our 
     country in such peril,'' the president posted on Twitter on 
     Sunday. ``If something happens blame him and court system. 
     People pouring in. Bad!''
       Had the president stuck to defending his executive power, 
     he would have been on solid ground. But surely it is 
     outrageous to argue that, in making a ruling based on his 
     review of the law, Robart deserves to be held accountable for 
     any lawless action perpetrated from terrorists long sworn to 
     harm Americans.
       Then, on Monday, Trump told members of the military that 
     news organizations have been intentionally covering up terror 
     attacks, saying that ``in many cases the very, very dishonest 
     press doesn't want to report it. They have their reasons, and 
     you understand that.''
       To back his assertion, Trump pointed to the exhaustively 
     reported terror attacks in Paris and Nice.
       American journalists have been killed reporting on 
     terrorists. They've been beheaded. It would be impossible to 
     calculate how many words have been written in the overall 
     war-on-terror beat. To suggest that some kind of shared bias 
     exists throughout American newsrooms so strong that it 
     compels journalists to hide truth and thereby endanger the 
     public is as dangerous as it is demonstrably untrue.
       So, once again, Lying Trump takes the stage. When he can't 
     make the grade, he blames others. Doing so is a common enough 
     human reaction to personal weakness, but to falsely suggest--
     based on the known evidence--that members of the judiciary 
     and the press are somehow on the side of enemies of the state 
     points to either a cracked mind, or something more sinister.
       Americans shouldn't buy what our president is selling. The 
     truth is Trump botched what could have been a reasonable 
     attempt to make the country safer. His mistakes gave our 
     enemies a huge morale and recruiting boost. And his bashing 
     of others is as unseemly as it is dishonest.

  Mr. BENNET. The Denver Post editorialized yesterday, stating the 
obvious horrible truth here:

       American journalists have been killed reporting on 
     terrorists. They've been beheaded. . . . To suggest that some 
     kind of shared bias exists throughout American newsrooms so 
     strong that it compels journalists to hide truth and thereby 
     endanger the public is as dangerous as it is demonstrably 
     untrue.

  That is right. It is dangerous. It is dangerous for the leader of the 
free world to be saying that journalists are crooks; that the facts 
they are publishing in newspapers and online are untrue when they are 
true. It is dangerous when we are engaged in an experiment of self-
government that goes back about 240 years to the founding of this 
country to refute things that are absolutely true as false and to claim 
that the reason they are being raised is because people lack integrity; 
that journalism is all about false news.
  The White House put out a list of, I think it was in the seventies, 
of terrorist attacks they claim had never been reported, and newspaper 
after newspaper after newspaper had to run lists of the events that the 
White House described as unreported and then have links to the stories 
in their own newspapers and other newspapers that had reported on 
terrorists. As the Denver Post noted, and it is worth remembering this, 
there are journalists who have lost their lives trying to cover this 
story to have us better understand what is happening in the Middle 
East, what the threat of terror looks like, and have been beheaded on 
television because they took that risk.
  With respect to the judges, for years it has been so painful around 
here to get anybody confirmed. I see these folks who are lawyers who 
have to put their law practice on hold for something that should be the 
greatest reflection of achievement of their life, being appointed to a 
Federal district court in this country, and who wait and wait and wait 
because of the unconscionable delay and disputes and partisan bickering 
that happens here instead of getting people on the court to do the job 
that they need to do.
  Now we are going to be in the business of accusing judges and the 
judiciary of being crooked, of not following the law, of just playing 
politics. I think it is really important for us--not just Democrats but 
also Republicans--and I know my colleague is here from Florida. I wish 
to say in this body how much I appreciated his comments last night. He 
may not appreciate that I am saying that, but I appreciate his comments 
because a lot of what he said I completely agree with.
  I know it has become fashionable to tear down rather than work to 
improve the democratic institutions which generations of Americans have 
built. This place didn't get here by accident. It is not a fluke. The 
Founding Fathers would be shocked--shocked--to know this Republic still 
exists. They would be proud. I think they would be proud of the 
progress we have made, but they would be shocked, at the time they were 
compromising with one another--slave owners and abolitionists, 
compromising to create this Republic that had never existed in an 
expanse as big as the Thirteen Colonies geographically or with as many 
people in the Thirteen Colonies geographically--for them to see this 
about 240 years later from coast to coast, 330 million people, the 
strongest military on the planet, the strongest economy on the planet, 
a place where people want to come--just as my mother and her parents 
came--to build opportunity for the next generation. That is incredibly 
special in the history of humankind. As I think my colleague from 
Florida was saying last night, we need to treat it with a little more 
care.
  I am not just talking about the Senate. I am talking about our 
responsibility to provide oversight for this administration. I am 
talking about the importance for us to set an example for the children 
I saw last Friday at the naturalization ceremony, just as they are 
setting an example for us.
  None of us is going to be here forever. We have a lot of work to do. 
There are a lot of people here and around the world who are counting on 
us to pull ourselves together and start making this place work.

[[Page S954]]

  I will finish by saying that I think in this world of social media, 
it is also critically important for us to remember the importance of 
edited content and the work that journalists do. There is not a class 
of school kids whom I don't impose at least that thought on, as they 
think about the research they are doing for their papers and the work 
we need to do as Senators.
  I thank my colleagues for their indulgence. Thank you for allowing me 
to speak on this floor. It is a great privilege to be here, but it is a 
privilege we need to exercise in a way that actually reflects the 
values of this country and the expectations that the American people 
have for us to address their priorities.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.