Journalist April Ryan on Sunday said President Donald Trump is playing a “dangerous game” with his attacks on the press.
"During the campaign, this president talked about kicking people out and beating them up. People did get beat up,” Ryan, a reporter with the American Urban Radio Networks, told Brian Stelter on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”
“And the problem is now when you make the press the enemy, which he has, there are people out here who are really crazy enough to feel that, and to act on it," she continued.
Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday mocked members of the media, calling NBC host Chuck Todd a “sleeping son of a bitch,” and CNN “fake as hell.”
"NBC is perhaps worse than CNN, I have to tell you. And MSNBC is horrible,” he added.
CNN contributor Salena Zito, who was at the rally, referred to Trump’s comments as a “shtick.”
“This is not shtick, it's not comedy,” said Ryan.
“This is real and it's dangerous ... All the president has to say is act on it, and people will turn. This is someone who has the power of life and death in his tongue and in his pen, and also the fact that people will turn on the press in a moment's notice.”