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This is a thread about Trump's "delay" tweet, democratic backsliding, and the importance of believing your own eyes & ears. It begins on Sunday, January 22, 2017, the first weekend of the Trump presidency. (1/14)
Anchoring a weekly news program can be strange sometimes. You get one shot a week. Gotta make it count. So in late 2016 and early 2017 I repeatedly brought up Trump's authoritarian tone. Right wing blogs piled on the ridicule. (2/14)
"This is what strongmen do. This is what happens in authoritarian regimes." I second-guessed myself from time to time, like any journalist should... I probed my own scripts and arguments for weaknesses. Was I describing the situation correctly? (3/14)
On the morning of the 22nd, before my 11am show, I had a heated call with WH press secretary @SeanSpicer about crowd size gate. The specifics were off the record, but it was clear to me that something had changed. The White House was telling us not to believe what we saw. (4/14)
That weekend we all anchored from a gorgeous rooftop in DC. Capitol dome in the distance. I read a monologue with 50 questions. "Will President Trump deny reality? Will he make up his own false facts and fake stats?" We knew his past but didn't know the future... (5/14)
So I asked lots of Q's. "Will reporters give up trying to fact-check?" (No!) Is that the goal -- to wear us down, to wear us out?" (Seems like yes!) "Who will you trust?" I went on: "Is Trump gaslighting us?" "Does he know what gaslighting means?" (6/14)
In retrospect, the next Q's on the list = what the Trump years have been all about: "What will you believe? Will you and your neighbors just shrug, or will you demand more honesty from your government?" (7/14) https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2017/01/22/brian-stelter-truth-trust-trump.cnn
This is uncomfortable, I said, while asking: "Do citizens in dictatorships recognize what's happening right here, right now? Are they looking at the first two days of the Trump administration and saying, 'That's what my leader does?' What should we learn from them today?" (8/14)
I felt like I was out on a limb a little bit. Maybe a little too far. Dictatorships? America's democracy was strong. And the president was brand new. I mean, he wasn't floating the notion of delaying elections! But he was already making un-American noises... (9/14)
3+ years in, the noises are much louder. The lead story on @ReliableSources in mid-February, my last Sunday before coronavirus completely took over, was "creeping authoritarianism." It's a worldwide story, as groups like @freedomhouse and @pressfreedom have documented (10/14)
I quoted from "How Democracies Die," the 2018 book by Steven Levitsky and @dziblatt: "The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy's assassins use the very institutions of democracy, gradually, subtly, and even legally, to kill it." (11/14)
The usual critics came out of the woodwork again and said the segment was an overreaction. That's what they said every time. But democratic backsliding is real. It's one of the biggest stories of our time. (12/14) https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2020/02/16/stelter-defines-creeping-authoritarianism-in-trumps-america.cnn
The point is not about me or my monologues — it's about believing your own eyes and ears. We can see the story right in front of us. We can keep asking questions — and now we can answer some of them. (13/14)
Some of Trump's behavior was predictable from the very beginning. His recklessness – now, trying to sow doubt about this fall's election – continues to be a big story and a big challenge for the press. (14/14)
Oh, and, I turned this thread into a column
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/media/trump-threat-to-democracy/index.html
Oh, and, I turned this thread into a column
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/media/trump-threat-to-democracy/index.html
