“Frankly, when you look at what he’s been tweeting today directed at the whistleblower, directed at so many people, you know, I, frankly, think that based on this and all we’ve seen him do before, including attacking members of Congress, that he, frankly, should be -- his Twitter account should be suspended,” the presidential candidate said on Monday’s “Anderson Cooper 360” on CNN. “I think there is plenty of now evidence to suggest that he is irresponsible with his words in a way that could result in harm to other people. And so the privilege of using those words in that way should probably be taken from him.”
"If he's not going to exercise self-restraint, then, perhaps, there should be other mechanisms in place to make sure that his words do not, in fact, harm anyone," she added. "And that's my point. What we want to make sure is that his words do not actually result in harm to anyone."
Trump posted several tweets Monday using the phrase or hashtag, “Fake Whistleblower.” Over the weekend, he quoted a pastor who, during an appearance on Fox News, said removing the president would “cause a Civil War like fracture.”
Trump also said he deserves to meet his accuser.
“In addition, I want to meet not only my accuser, who presented SECOND & THIRD HAND INFORMATION, but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the ‘Whistleblower.’ Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences!”, he tweeted Sunday.
Later that evening, “60 Minutes” reported on a letter sent by the whistleblower’s attorney to the acting director of National Intelligence that said “certain individuals have issued a $50,000 ‘bounty’ for ‘any information’ relating to our client’s identity.”
The report also indicated the whistleblower is now under federal protection because he or she fears for their safety, although the attorney, Mark Zaid, later said “60 Minutes completely misinterpreted contents” of the letter.
The CBS program responded by saying it “stands by its sources and reporting on the whistleblower.”
Meanwhile, Trump, in his first Twitter post of the day Tuesday, didn’t address the whistleblower directly, though he once again referred to the House Intelligence Committee chairman as “Liddle’ Adam Schiff."
In June, Twitter adopted a new policy directed at political figures that hides potentially harmful tweets that are still in the public interest. The social media platform, however, hasn’t appeared to take that action with any of Trump’s recent tweets aimed at the whistleblower, the complaint or Schiff.
©2019 The Plain Dealer, Cleveland. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
