--- title: Read Jeff Flake's Condemning Donald Trump's Attack on Media description: The Arizona Senator delivered a searing rebuke of President Donald Trump's attacks on the press on the Senate floor Wednesday. canonical: https://time.com/5106069/jeff-flake-donald-trump-press-attacks/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-17T17:26:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:46:21.137Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Jeff Flake's Speech Comparing Trump's Attacks on the Media to Josef Stalin og:description: "If we compromise the truth for the sake of our politics, we are lost" og:url: https://time.com/5106069/jeff-flake-donald-trump-press-attacks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73b18f7a380960b9/6988f87cfb4eac04e189553b/jeff-flake-senate-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) Delivers Critical Speech Against Trump's Attacks On The Media In Senate Chamber og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Jeff Flake's Speech Comparing Trump's Attacks on the Media to Josef Stalin twitter:description: "If we compromise the truth for the sake of our politics, we are lost" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73b18f7a380960b9/6988f87cfb4eac04e189553b/jeff-flake-senate-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'This Is Reprehensible.' Read Jeff Flake's Speech Comparing Trump's Attacks on the Media to Josef Stalin > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=07815ff1-7c29-4808-89af-320eb6e41102&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Sen. Jeff Flake Likens President Trump's Attacks on Media to Josef Stalin [Watch (HLS stream): Sen. Jeff Flake Likens President Trump's Attacks on Media to Josef Stalin](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lZiyLScO.m3u8) (2:24)  _Published 2018-01-17. A Republican senator is denouncing President Donald Trump's use of the terms "fake news" and "enemy of the people" to describe the news media and stories he doesn't like._  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jan 17, 2018 5:26 PM UTC  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jan 17, 2018 5:26 PM UTC Jeff Flake delivered a searing rebuke of President Donald Trump’s attacks on the press on the Senate floor Wednesday, urging the chamber to counteract his rhetoric by defending the media. “Not only has the past year seen an American president borrow despotic language to refer to the free press, but it seems he has in turn inspired dictators and authoritarians with his own language. This is reprehensible,” said the outgoing Arizona Republican senator. “We are not in a ‘fake news’ era, as Bashar Assad says. We are, rather, in an era in which the authoritarian impulse is reasserting itself, to challenge free people and free societies, everywhere.” This was not the first time Flake has used the Senate floor to criticize the President. Last October, when he announced his decision to retire, he [warned his colleagues](http://time.com/4995650/arizona-jeff-flake-retire-donald-trump-republican-party/) about the “personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency”that he said were emanating from the executive branch of government, and argued the Senate needed to be a check on democracy. This time, Flake explicitly analogized President Trump’s rhetoric on the press with that of communist Russia. “’The enemy of the people,’ was what the president of the United States called the free press in 2017\. It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies,” he said. “This alone should be a source of great shame for us in this body, especially for those of us in the president’s party.” Read the full speech below. --- > “” --- ## Transcript 2017 was a year which saw the truth, objective, empirical, evidence- based truth, more battered and abused than at any time in the history of our country, at the hands of the most powerful figure in our government. It was a year which saw the White House enshrine alternative facts into the American lexicon. As justification for what used to be simply called old- fashioned falsehoods. The enemy of the people was how the president of the United States called the free press in 2017. Mr. President, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin. To describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase, enemy of the people, that even Nikita Kruchev forbade it's use. Telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of, quote, annihilating such individuals, unquote, who disagreed with the supreme leader. We know well that no matter how powerful, no president will ever have dominion over objective reality. No politician will ever get us, or tell us what the truth is and what it is not. And anyone who presumes to try to attack or manipulate the press for his own purposes should be made to realize, His mistake, and to be held to account, that is our job here. That is just as Madison, Hamilton, and Jay would have it. Of course, a major difference between the politicians and the free press is that the free press usually corrects itself when it's made a mistake. Politicians don't. 2018 must be the year in which the truth takes a stand against Power that would weaken it. In this effort, the choice is quite simple. And in this effort, the truth needs as many allies as possible. Together, my colleagues, we are powerful. Together we have it within us to turn back these attacks, to right these wrongs, repair this damage. Restore reverence for our institutions and prevent further moral vandalism. Together, united in this purpose to do our jobs under the Constitution without regard to party or party loyalty, let us resolve to be allies of the truth and not partners in its destruction. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5106069/jeff-flake-donald-trump-press-attacks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5106069/jeff-flake-donald-trump-press-attacks/"},"headline":"'This Is Reprehensible.' 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