Chris Matthews called President Trump a communist last night on his show “Hardball” for banning CNN reporter Kaitlin Collins from a White House Rose Garden event.
Collins was shouting questions at President Trump at the end of a press event in the Oval Office after having been asked to leave repeatedly. However, Collins was not the only reporter shouting questions at Trump. It is par for the course behavior for most reporters.
It was reported that Collins's questions were deemed inappropriate. Those included: "Did Michael Cohen betray you, Mr. President? Mr. President, are you worried about what Michael Cohen is about to say to the prosecutors? Are you worried about what is on the other tapes, Mr. President? Why is Vladimir Putin not accepting your invitation, Mr. President?"
Trump did not respond to Collins's questions and said, "Thank you very much, everybody" to the press pool.
Wednesday night on his show “Hardball” Chris Matthews commented on the situation: “I grew up hearing people about in communist countries people were only allowed to hear news from the government, that you got arrested or worse if you were caught even listening to news from anywhere else,” reported Newsbusters.
Firstly, it is no secret that the relationship between the Trump Administration and CNN is at best a strained relationship. The tension extends back to before President Trump’s election to the Presidency when Trump first referred to CNN as “fake news,” a term that went viral and is now a meaningless political buzzword.
While banning CNN reporter Collins was not the most politically savvy move by the Trump administration, the analogy that Matthews tries to make falls flat. One reporter was banished from one event, the administration has not banned an entire network. CNN could have sent a different reporter to cover the event, if coverage of the event was that important to the network. This situation has been blown out of proportion by both sides of the media.