An anonymous security goon at a Mike Pence rally took the Donald Trump campaign’s efforts to stifle a free press to a new low on Wednesday.
The Washington Post reported that reporter Jose A. DelReal was banned from entering the event at the Waukesha County Exposition Center outside Milwaukee after a security official, who refused to give his name, had him patted down by police for a cellphone that wasn’t there. The newspaper has been blacklisted from receiving credentials by the Trump campaign but has continued to cover his events by attending via general admission.
First, DelReal was rejected for a credential and was denied entry through the press table, which would adhere to Trump’s despicable policy of First Amendment suppression of media outlets he doesn’t like.
But that suppression was taken to a new level when DelReal attempted to enter via general admission. First, a private security official told him he couldn’t enter with his laptop and cellphone.
In the past, the Trump general admission policy has been this: “No posters, banners, or signs may be brought into the event. There is no dress code. No professional cameras with a detachable lens are permitted. No tripods, monopods, selfie sticks, or GoPros. ID is not required for entry.” Cellphones are not on the list.
DelReal said he asked the security official if others were allowed to enter with cellphones and the official responded, “Not if they work for the Washington Post.”
When the reporter returned without his cellphone or computer, the security official called over county sheriff’s office Deputy John Lappley and Capt. Michelle Larsuel to pat him down and search for the phone. When the sheriff’s deputies didn’t find a phone, the security official then denied DelReal entry anyway.
“He said, ‘I don’t want you here. You have to go,’ ” DelReal told the Post.
“The security person wouldn’t give his name when DelReal asked him to identify himself,” the Post reported. “He also denied DelReal’s request to speak to a campaign press representative as he escorted the journalist out.”
The Post is one of about a dozen organizations that have been banned by the Trump campaign.
“First, press credentials for the Washington Post were revoked by Donald Trump,” Post executive editor Martin Baron told the paper. “Now, law enforcement officers, in collusion with private security officials, subjected a reporter to bullying treatment that no ordinary citizen has to endure. All of this took place in a public facility no less. The harassment of an independent press isn’t coming to an end. It’s getting worse.”
Pence press secretary Marc Lotter issued a statement saying, “Our events are open to everyone, and we are looking into the alleged incident.”
One official from the Pence campaign blamed the incident on an overzealous volunteer. “It sounds like they misinterpreted what they were supposed to be doing,” the official told the Post. “This is not our policy.”
But the incident fits perfectly into a larger pattern of retribution against press outlets he doesn’t like by Donald Trump.
He said in February that as president he wanted to make libel laws more stringent—a power he wouldn’t legally have, except perhaps through Supreme Court appointments that changed First Amendment interpretation.
“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,” Trump said at the time. During that speech he promised “problems” for disliked members of the press if he were to win the White House.
“Believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems,” Trump said of these media members. “They’re going to have such problems.”
Trump has taken a particular hard line with the Post, saying that owner Jeff Bezos had “antitrust” issues with his company Amazon and alleging that Bezos was using the newspaper to influence tax policy for his company’s benefits. The implication seemed to be that Trump would go after Bezos, Amazon, and the Post if he were president, and the reason seemed specifically to be the Post’s negative coverage.
“Every hour we’re getting calls from reporters from the Washington Post asking ridiculous questions and I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos, who controls Amazon,” Trump said at the time.
Whether or not this latest incident was an actual policy of the campaign, it fits in perfectly with the candidate’s authoritarian instincts to try to stifle a free and critical press.
