You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Harvard Professor to Trump: There is No Evidence Media Is Covering Up Terrorist Attacks

StoryFebruary 07, 2017
Watch Full Show
Listen
Media Options
Listen

On Monday, President Trump falsely claimed that the media is intentionally covering up terrorist attacks. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported,” Trump said. “And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it.” The claims appear to be part of a wider push by the White House to increase fear about potential—and even imaginary—terrorist attacks in order to justify President Trump’s crackdown on immigration, including his Muslim ban. We speak to Harvard professor Stephen Walt. His recent piece in Foreign Policy is headlined “Trump Has Already Blown It.”

Related Story

StoryApr 15, 2024Trump in the Dock: First Criminal Trial of a Former U.S. President Begins Today in NYC
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, you just tweeted, “New theory”—you just tweeted, “The media is NOT covering terrorism? Is #trump serious? Delusional? Incurably dishonest? All of the above?” Donald Trump falsely claiming Monday during a speech to U.S. CENTCOM in Florida at the MacDill Air Base that the media is intentionally covering up terrorist attacks. Your response?

STEPHEN WALT: Well, again, I think that there’s no evidence of this at all. If anything, I think the media has overcovered the problem of terrorism really ever since 9/11. It’s why Americans greatly exaggerate the actual risk they are under. The risk that Americans face from a terrorist attack here in the United States is astronomically small, sort of one chance in 4 million. There are so many other things that are much more of a danger to us, much more of a problem that we should be worrying about. And it’s—

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there, Professor Stephen Walt.

STEPHEN WALT: OK.

AMY GOODMAN: Thanks so much for joining us, professor of international relations at Harvard University.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Up Next

Trump in the Dock: First Criminal Trial of a Former U.S. President Begins Today in NYC

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top