Trump 'licking his chops' to go after more media outlets, using DOJ & military, Maddow Dec 16 clip & transcript

After ABC settled for $15 million, Trump expects the U.S. DOJ to file these lawsuits for him, turning U.S. government against its own citizens.

VIDEO (transcript below)  

Part One Firewall for freedom': The plan to protect U.S. democracy from Donald Trump. 

 

TRANSCRIPT: Quite unexpected news this weekend that ABC news would settle a defamation suit with President-Elect Trump and pay him $15 million had the president-elect licking his chops today at a press conference talking about the prospects he imagines for going after more media outlets.

The especially hairy thing he said today was that actually he shouldn't have to bring suits like this himself.  He expects that the Justice Department, the U.S. Department of Justice, should bring lawsuits like this on his behalf.

But the dynamic that's emerging for the second Trump term is not just that powerful people want to be able to use their own power to harass their perceived critics. it's that the new President-elect, he expects-

He expects that he'll be able to use not just his own power and influence, but he'll be able to use the U.S. government to harass and punish his critics.

And it's not just the Justice Department he plans to use.  Today the outgoing chair of the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, responded to  Trump's demands that the FCC should strip licenses from news network that made him mad.

The outgoing chair said, quote, the FCC has no business threatening to take away broadcast licenses because the President doesn't like the content or the coverage on a network.

Ahead of the election Trump talked about using the U.S. Military, domestically, to target Americans who oppose him or protest against him.

The so-called enemy from within.

Now he's reportedly planning on creating a new board overseeing promotions and senior officers in the U.S. military, which would allow him to purge military leadership of anybody who is disloyal to him or disagrees with him or who has different politics.

Trump and his allies are also reportedly considering with holding federal money from dtates or cities that don't go along with plans like his mass deportation idea.

It feels like a lot because it is a lot and happening all at once.

How do local governments and news organizations and ordinary citizens think strategically about this when  Trump is threatening and saying he expects to use the most powerful government on earth against its own citizens to attack his critics?

What can your mayor or your governor or your local paper or some voluntary organization you might be part of do to stand up against that in a time like this?

(Clip continues w interview w Anthony Ramiro, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union.)  

Part Two Better for the billionaire: Rachel Maddow on the fallout when the presidency caters to billionaires