JOHN HEILEMANN: There is, Willie's right, there is bias of various kinds in the press and there have been for a long time in various administrations through our entire lifetimes. But the reality is that in addition to the lies, part of what has driven the hostility is the way in which the president has created a hostile climate going back to the campaign, where in event after event, where members of the press felt unsafe --
JOE SCARBOROUGH (CO-HOST): Right.
HEILEMANN: -- where they felt as though the president was inspiring violence, is stirring up anger among his crowd, but we have colleagues who felt physically threatened, who needed body guards in the campaign because they felt as though their physical safety was in danger because the president was not just lying but also whipping up that kind of anger. And that is part of the core --
MIKA BRZEZINSKI (CO-HOST): And she defends that.
SCARBOROUGH: We've been certainly saying, of course, he did call the press the enemy of the people, using a Stalinist term. And I can tell you that let's just say the threats that Mika and I get go up exponentially after he makes personal attacks against us or pushes conspiracy theories out against us. I talked to a lot of people in the media, I'm sure you were there, that during the rallies they'd be in -- they'd be in the press box, and he would point to the press, and it'd get very ugly, and there were people that had to be escorted out concerned for their safety.
STEVE RATTNER: Look, every administration has some level of distrust for the press. I served in one and you think they're out to get you, you think they're asking too many tough questions, they think they're biased, whatever. But only Nixon in my lifetime, that I can think of, had this hostility to the press, this belief that the press was evil and somehow should be put in a box. And in Trump's case, as you point out, even taking to the level of using phrases like “enemy of the people.” And it's a very scary time.
