“What’s your message to communist Zohdan?”
A question at Tuesday’s press conference.
How things have changed since January. The new administration banned AP from press conferences because they were insufficiently positive towards the president. They sued against the decision and won. The regime blocked them anyway.
By now, all recognised press organisations have been banned from official press conferences. What remains are a set of influencers from Twitter and Youtube who agree with the project and will flatter the president appropriately. It’s no wonder he hated the NATO presser so much last week. That was the first time he has faced real questions for ages.
“We’ll have to arrest him,” came the reply. “We don’t need a communist.” He went on to threaten a number of other political opponents with deportation, some of whom were born in the USA.
Bondi is on the case, trying to find ways to suppress opposition.
That’s where we are, less than six months in. The president talks about arresting and deporting his enemies to a tame press and that’s the way things are.
Then there’s also the reports from Abrego Garcia’s trial, where he describes the harrowing torture the regime put him through. No wonder they tried so hard to stop him coming back. This is another one of the changes we have seen.
I’m taking a break from this for a week or so. I’ve had enough of these monsters.