The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) had a quick response to Steve Bannon’s declaration that the news media should “keep its mouth shut.”
That response: No, it shouldn’t.
“No, Stephen Bannon, the media should not ‘keep its mouth shut’ and if the Trump administration tries, we’ll see them in court,” the organization tweeted.
Bannon, President Trump’s chief strategist, said in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday: “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while. I want you to quote this. The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”
He later added: “That’s why you have no power. You were humiliated.”
This isn’t the first time the American Civil Liberties Union has offered to take the Trump Administration to court. In fact, that’s the first thing it did when Trump won the presidency. “If Donald Trump Implements His Proposed Policies, We’ll See Him in Court,” executive director Anthony D. Romero said in a statement the day after the Nov. 8 election.
Taking an adversarial stance toward Trump has been good for the ACLU’s fundraising. In the week after Trump’s election, the group announced that it raised a record $7.2 million.