Trump’s attack on press plays out on Capitol Hill

Days after a supporter of President Donald J. Trump’s attacked members of the press during a rally in El Paso, Texas, U.S. Capitol police clashed with reporters attempting to speak with senators in the basement of the Senate.

In both instances, as in other times the press has been the target of verbal or physical assaults, the goal was to prevent reporters from working.

As Reporters Without Borders, a group that advocates for press freedom around the world, said in statement following the altercation in El Paso, “We firmly denounce all physical violence against reporters for doing their jobs. This is unacceptable in the country of the First Amendment.”

While the comment was prompted by what occurred at the Trump rally, it has relevance to last week’s Capitol police crackdown that turned physical.

Here’s how Roll Call described what took place:

“Capitol Police officers physically shoved reporters away from senators heading to vote on the spending package, even when lawmakers were willingly engaging with the press.

“Officers surrounded lawmakers and escorted them, physically blocking reporters from walking and talking alongside senators. It is common for Capitol Police to be present in the basement during a vote, but there were many more officers on hand than usual.”

But here’s the disturbing aspect of the heavy-handed police action: Senators making their way from the Senate subway to the elevators were willing to talk to reporters as they walked, a practice so long-standing that it’s taken for granted.

As Roll Call noted, Sen. Shelly Moore Capito engaged with the media as she made her way from the Senate subway to the elevators, but Capitol police officers encircled the West Virginia Republican, physically blocking reporters.

Veteran Capitol Hill reporter Matt Laslo, who was physically handled by the police, provided an audio recording of the incident to the news outlet.

“I am a pregnant woman and you just pushed me,” a reporter is heard saying to a police officer. Other reporters repeatedly asked why they were not being permitted to ask senators questions and why officers were putting their hands on them.

Mutually beneficial

Given that interactions between the press and lawmakers in Congress are taken for granted – both sides benefit – the reaction of the police does prompt this question: Why now?

The question takes on added significance in light of Capitol Police Inspector Thomas Lloyd Jr.’s repeatedly saying “That’s a violation” as he pointed to reporters walking alongside senators.

According to Roll Call, Lloyd then told staff from the Senate press galleries, which facilitate press coverage of the chamber, that reporters should not be moving with senators.

“Surrounding them – we lock people up for that,” the police inspector said, as reporters gathered to listen to Alabama Sen. Richard C. Shelby’s comments.

“If the public does that, they get locked up,” Lloyd said.

It is inconceivable that the high-ranking police officer does not recognize the inherent difference between a reporter, with all the necessary credentials, doing his or her job of covering Congress, and a member of the public visiting Capitol Hill.

The suggestion that members of the press are violating some law and, therefore, could be arrested and imprisoned echoes the sentiments of President Trump, who has been at war with reporters since the 2016 presidential campaign.

Mitt Romney, a senator from Utah and former Republican presidential nominee, was absolutely right when he said that Trump’s tactics are detrimental to democracy.

“Surely every president has endured stories that he knew were inaccurate and has chaffed at one or more news publications,” Romney wrote in a blog post. “But no American president has ever before vilified the American press or one of its professional outlets as an ‘Enemy of the People.’”

While the president is not going to stop his attacks on the press – they’re red meat for his supporters – Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress must address what occurred in the Senate basement and establish ground rules for the Capitol police.

A police force attempting to prevent reporters from doing their jobs is a disturbing reminder of what occurs in a dictatorship.