Donald Trump's incoming chairman of the Federal Communications Commission sent a stern letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger that's seen as a threat to other news media outlets, and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona warned that these preemptive moves could alienate voters.
Trump appointee Brendan Carr signaled that he would take a more active role policing the media industry, pointing to the $15 million defamation settlement ABC News reached with the president-elect, and Cardona expressed alarm that the incoming administration was already pursuing his perceived political enemies.
"I think that the administration is making overtures to what we know Trump wants to do, which is exactly what you underscored, and I think what they have to be really careful about both the FCC chair, as well as everyone who is incoming heads of agencies, heads of the departments, is this massive overreach that the Trump administration is signaling that they want to embark on," Cardona told CNN. "I think it is they are overconfident about the quote, unquote, mandate that they think they have, which is not a real mandate."
"Democrats did lose the House, the Senate and the White House, but this is still a very divided country," Cardona added. "Donald Trump didn't even get to 50 percent of the popular vote – 7,000 votes are what separates Democratic control of the House from Republican control of the House, and the Senate still has small margins for Republicans, and so they have to be really careful about this kind of overreach, because that is not what the American people voted for."
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She argued that Trump has already abandoned his core campaign promise to reduce prices on food and other consumer goods.
"The American people voted for Trump to bring down grocery prices, bring down high housing prices, and that's like the last thing that he's been talking about in these last several weeks," Cardona said, "and I think it's it's going to be something that is a very big risk for Republicans."
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