President Trump calls for a change in libel laws to 'hold Fake News Media accountable'
President Trump responded early Monday morning to a tweet made by foreign policy expert and NYU political science professor Ian Bremmer.
Bremmer on Sunday tweeted a fake quote attributed to the president, which he later deleted after backlash from journalists, political analysts, and Twitter users everywhere. Bremmer attempted to justify his fake tweet before deleting it, saying that the quote was "kinda plausible" and that that was "the point."
Trump fired back early Monday morning, panning the "age of Fake News" and the news media. "People think they can say anything and get away with it," Trump tweeted.
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Trump, who has 233 statements rated as false on PolitiFact, called for libel laws to be modified to hold journalists accountable. But it's unclear whether he has the power to do so, Fox News reported. In response to Trump's earlier calls to change libel laws, Brian Hauss, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that "the president does not have the authority" to change libel laws, since they fall under state, rather than federal, jurisdiction.
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Shivani is the editorial assistant at TheWeek.com and has previously written for StreetEasy and Mic.com. A graduate of the physics and journalism departments at NYU, Shivani currently lives in Brooklyn and spends free time cooking, watching TV, and taking too many selfies.
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