Forty-three percent of Republicans hold the flatly unconstitutional view that the president should be able to shut down media outlets he doesn’t like, according to a new poll from Ipsos, while just 36 percent disagree with the statement that “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.”
But many Republicans are apparently somewhat confused, since 83 percent of them also said that “freedom of the press is essential for American democracy.” Not only that, but 39 percent of Republicans said the press is “necessary to keep the Trump administration honest.” (No word on what percent of that 39 percent doesn’t want Trump kept honest.)
It could be that 43 percent of Republicans think Trump has the right to demand their first-born, so thinking he should be able to shut down media outlets doesn’t feel like such a big deal to them. But to the rest of us, knowing that a plurality of people in one of the major political parties believe the president should be able to violate the Constitution—right at the moment in time when the occupant of the White House appears to want to do just that—should be a scary prospect indeed.