Axios Co-Founder: Trump’s Comments About Reporters ‘Despicable, Extremely Deceptive, Dangerous’

Jim VandeHei, the co-founder of Axios (and before that Politico), unloaded on President Donald Trump on Twitter in response to his Tuesday night rally in Phoenix, Arizona.

Trump spent the better part of his 78-minute, stream-of-consciousness speech railing against the “sick” and “crooked” media, calling reporters “liars” who “don’t like our country” and are “trying to take away our history and our heritage.”

VandeHei took to Twitter in response to the president’s attack to issue a message to his “family/friends who support Trump,” calling his comments “despicable, extremely deceptive, dangerous”:

To family/friends who support Trump: what he said last night about reporters was despicable, extremely deceptive, dangerous…

— Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) August 23, 2017

…Claim bias. Fine. Claim elitism. Fine. Claim the press hyperventilates/bloviates. Fine…

— Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) August 23, 2017

VandeHei then mentioned Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in 2002 by terrorists in Pakistan and later beheaded:

…But to say reporters erase America’s heritage, don’t love America, turn off cameras to hide truth, are to blame for racial tension…

— Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) August 23, 2017

…is just plain wrong. I worked w/ reporters like Daniel Pearl who died a gruesome death seeking truth; scores die yearly exposing facts…

— Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) August 23, 2017

…There are great Americans deeply concerned about a changing nation. God forbid one buys Trump’s mad rant and takes action…

— Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) August 23, 2017

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter

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