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Donald Trump Attacks Jeff Bezos, Amazon (Video, Complete Text)

donald-j-trump-for-president-our-country-large-4Determined to make orange face paint popular again, Sideshow Donald continued his campaign for the US Presidency this week with a new attack on Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and the media in general.

Speaking in Texas on Thursday, Trump laid into Amazon. "I have respect for Jeff Bezos, but he bought the Washington Post to have political influence. And I gotta tell you, we have a different country than we used to have. We have a different… He owns Amazon. He wants political influence so that Amazon will benefit from it. That’s not right. And believe me, if I become president, oh do they have problems. They’re gonna have such problems," he said.

A quick check of news coverage failed to turn up a complete text of his remarks, so for the help of the non-native English speakers I have copied the text below, following the video:

“I’ll tell you what, I think the media is among the most dishonest groups of people I’ve ever met. They’re terrible. The New York Times, which is losing a fortune, which is a failing newspaper, which probably won’t be around that much longer, but probably somebody will buy it as a trophy, keep it going for a little longer. But I think The New York Times is one of the most dishonest media outlets I’ve ever seen in my life. The worst, the worst. The absolute worst. They have an agenda that you wouldn’t believe. And they’re run by incompetent people. They are totally incompetently run."

"Washington Post, I have to tell you, I have respect for Jeff Bezos, but he bought The Washington Post to have political influence and I got to tell you, we have a different country than we used to have. We have a different — He owns Amazon. He wants political influence so that Amazon will benefit from it. That’s not right. And believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems. They’re going to have such problems."

"And one of the things I’m going to do, and this is only going to make it tougher for me, and I’ve never said this before, but one of the things I’m going to do if I win — and I hope I do and we’re certainly leading — is I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re going to open up those libel laws."

"So that when The New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when the Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected. You see, with me, they’re not protected because I’m not like other people but I’m not taking money. I’m not taking their money. So we’re going to open up those libel laws folks and we’re going to have people sue you like you never got sued before. We have many things to do. We have many, many things to do.”

(found via The Passive Voice)

O O O

It’s hard to tell whether he is serious or simply telling the crowd what they want to hear, but either way what Trump is proposing amounts to censorship by the government.

We haven’t seen the likes of Trump since McCarthy. Think back to how much damage HUAC did to our country, and then multiple it be the power of the presidency.

That’s what Trump could do, if he wins. And that should frighten everyone.

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Comments


Dude February 27, 2016 um 9:53 pm

Go Trump!


Hrafn February 27, 2016 um 10:52 pm

What an idiotic piece of pandering.

1) The President doesn’t make laws (libel or otherwise), Congress does — so POTUS has limited influence on what they say.

2) Congress is severely limited by the First Amendment and SCOTUS as to how much further they can extend libel protection.

3) Even if a more extensive law was enacted, it would be far more likely to catch out media outlets that play fast and loose with the truth (e.g. Fox News) than those that carefully vet what they say (e.g. WaPo & NYT).

"…It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."


fjtorres February 28, 2016 um 7:12 am

The joke here is Trump is a creation of the mainstream media who focused on him as a way of *not* covering the serious, competent candidates in the field and forcing them out of the race…
…and they have mostly succeeded.
The real damage is already done.

Btw, comoaring Trump to McCarthy is way unfair to McCarthy.


Hrafn February 28, 2016 um 7:29 am

Trump’s campaign is indeed a 'media creation', but not really of the MSM, but rather of Fox News and Talk Radio. It is the paranoid and untethered anger that they have hyped for decades that he is tapping into to energise his campaign. In creating the media confection that is Trump the MSM merely created the 'lightning rod' that 'earthed' this free-floating resentment. To use a Ghostbusters analogy, Trump is simply the 'Staypuff Marshmallow Man' of this little psychodrama. If not him, it would have been another.

Nate Hoffelder February 28, 2016 um 7:41 am

One, Fox News is MSM, and two, I only read about Trump in the rest of the media (he gets a _lot_ of coverage).

So you can’t blame one ideological faction in the media for making him. Everyone else may be covering him because he is a spectacle, but they are still covering him.

Hrafn February 28, 2016 um 10:25 am

1) There is NOTHING "mainstream" about Fox News. It’s whole schtick is whipping up conservatives into a frenzy with a frothy mix of fear and paranoia. Studies have found that, because of this steady stream of disinformation, their viewers end up knowing less about what is going on than those who don’t watch any "news" at all. In this they far more resemble Talk Radio (who I grouped them with) than any legitimate news outlet.

2) "If it bleeds, it leads" — and Trump positively bleeds controversy — so of course he gets an enormous amount of coverage. Blame ratings and capitalism — but don’t expect things to change anytime soon. Commercial news outlets exist primarily to serve their shareholders, and thus the bottom line. Good news coverage is often incidental to that task.

3) I did not blame Fox News & Talk Radio for creating Trump, but rather for creating the stampede (which was blatantly obvious in the form of the 'Tea Party' long before Trump got into the race) that he’s riding to the Republican Nomination. They primed conservatives to the receptive to reality-divorced polemics — Trump is merely serving it up more brazenly than any serious politician would attempt.

fjtorres February 28, 2016 um 7:43 am

Trump isn’t the only one pandering to the clueless disaffected on his ego trip. He is however the one getting all the screen time on the msm networks.
Contrast his msm coverage to the other rabble rousers like Rand Paul.
Or the serious candidates like Kasich.
How many people out there even know Kasich is running?

Hrafn February 28, 2016 um 10:33 am

Because Trump is doing it the most brazenly, and unlike most professional politicians, is courting controversy at any cost. If you believe that "no publicity [however negative] is bad publicity", you will tend to end up getting a lot more publicity than your more cautious competitors. In any sane electorate, enough negative publicity will sink your campaign, Trump appears to have been the only candidate to have fully learned that, in the current Republican primary electorate, this rule no longer applies (as long as you don’t get caught too blatantly lying about a fellow Republican).


Nirmala February 28, 2016 um 10:02 am

It is Trump himself that would have a lot of problems if it was easier to sue for libel or slander. He seems to open himself to such charges on a daily basis, almost every time he opens his mouth or tweets.


fahirsch February 28, 2016 um 11:08 am

Trump is a very dangerous man, much more dangerous than McCarthy. He’s rich, and has rich friends. His followers may be ignorant, but he is not. He panders to the worst sentiments.
I hope the Republicans elect someone else as a candidate. And that the Democrats also elect someone better than the current candidates


Someone February 28, 2016 um 11:19 am

You know what should really "frighten everyone"? So called "liberal" tech bloggers using their position to post an anti-Trump scare post. If you’re a tech blog, you should be writing about tech. Have some god damn professionalism.

I’ve been subscribed to the RSS feed of this blog for a long time, and there are precious few blogs about e-readers. It would be a shame to see another blog go all SJW. Get your act together, man.

Nate Hoffelder February 28, 2016 um 11:39 am

Topics like Trump’s promised Constitutional violations like persecution of a religious minority and curtailing free speech can’t be described as right/left issues.

They’re right/wrong issues. (And for the record, my political leanings are constitutionalist, not liberal.)

And as for why I posted this, free speech, censorship, and Amazon all fall within the topics I cover. And since no one else had posted the complete text, I thought that this would help readers be more informed.


puzzled February 28, 2016 um 5:15 pm

Welcome to the return of Yellow Journalism.

I believe that Bill Maher said (on his show) that one of Trump’s primary news sources is the Washington Times, which is owned by the Moonies, so buying a newspaper for influence is not a new thing.

If Trump is elected, how long do you think it will be before he really pisses off the Republicans in Congress, violates some law, and is impeached. This may be why everyone is starting to scramble to be his Vice Presidental choice.


Max February 28, 2016 um 5:33 pm

Trump as president is laughable and absurd, but he doesn’t scare me. There are some mainstream politicians who are far scarier, for example John McCain.


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