RNC Joins Media, Court Bashing Over Immigration Decision

In the wake of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision not to allow President Donald Trump's temporary immigration ban to go into effect, the Republican National Committee is joining the President in attacking the media and the court.

In an email to supporters Friday, the RNC sought signatures for a petition supporting the ban, suggesting it was a way to combat lies from the press and an "ultra-liberal" court—the decision was unanimous, including by a judge appointed by a Republican President.

"President Trump has called for a temporary restriction on people entering our country from nations compromised by radical Islamic terrorism," read the email, which said it was from "Team Trump." The RNC called it a "commonsense, constitutional policy to keep our country safe" but that "the media has gone to extreme lengths to tear it to shreds and lie about it to the American people."

That same media, said the Republicans, "doesn’t want you to know that this commonsense policy is supported by a majority of Americans."

The now-famously thin-skinned President's only tweeted response to the court decision at presstime Friday morning was: "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE! [all caps were his]." Early Friday he was attacking the New York Times, tweeting: "The failing @nytimes does major FAKE NEWS China story saying 'Mr.Xi has not spoken to Mr. Trump since Nov.14.' We spoke at length yesterday!"

(Photo via Tori Rector's FlickrImage taken on July 21, 2016 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.