REPUBLICANS ARE GEARING UP TO SAY THAT BAD NEWS COVERAGE OF TRUMP IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE

Donald Trump can't quite say this yet because he needs to put on a brave face and insist that Republicans will do well in the midterms, but if the November results are as bad for the GOP as most observers now expect, I expect him to argue that poor media coverage of his administration was illegal election interference. And he won't be alone.

Take a look at some of the whining he did in the Time interview that was published this week. Trump was asked,

Why should Americans believe that you respect the free press when you're restricting access to the White House to some of our colleagues?

The gist of his answer was this:

Because I do respect the free press, but I don't respect fake news.... I haven't had a good story on CNN for years. They're incapable of being—they're fake news. Same thing on MS NOW.

If I do the finest thing, if I found the cure to cancer, they would say, "Why didn't he move quicker?" They are just horrible people, and they're so bad.

... I don't think anybody should be forced to bear fake news, constantly bad stories, because I've done great things. I mean, I've done Venezuela. I've done—I can name, I can name 100 great things I've done. I never get good press. I never get fair press. Doesn’t have to be good. All it has to be is fair.

His questioners changed the subject to Iran, but Trump couldn't let go of the idea that the press is mistreating him:

Everything is obliterated. They don't have radar. They don't have any anti-aircraft capability. Nothing. I have The New York Times saying how well they're doing, and it's so crazy. Their whole military is gone. Their radar is gone. Their leaders are gone. You know, we went through two levels of leaders, and The New York Times keeps writing about how well they're doing. They have no money. They have no value of money. They have nothing going, and just fake news, fake news, and maybe they’ll be next.

"Maybe they'll be next" means that the Times might experience its own White House ban. That's hard to imagine given Trump's love-hate relationship with the paper, but it could happen.

Trump was asked about the midterms and his own polling. He lashed out:

Mr. President, your polls have never been lower.

They're fake numbers. I would beat anybody running today by 20 points. Your numbers that you have are fake. The pollsters are corrupt. They're almost as corrupt as the writers.

And at the end of what was mostly a deferential interview, he lashed out again:

You haven't asked me one fucking positive question. All of this. What about this? What about that? What about that? What about this? All negative.... I would say that I should be given credit for fixing the White House because I'm also doing very well with the war. I'm doing very well with another war that we already won, Venezuela.

Put it all together -- Trump crying about bad coverage, Trump insisting that pollsters are publishing dishonestly bad polls about him (why would they do that?) -- and I think it's quite possible that he'll argue that the press engaged in illegal election interference, just by not flattering him as much as Natalie Harp does.

Ohio senator Bernie Moreno seems ready to back Trump up if he makes that argument, HuffPost reports:

... Moreno [said] voters are mad about gas costs, not at the president, and blamed the media for making people even more mad at him.

“Number one, gas prices. And number two, a media that just does not let up,” said the Ohio Republican. “I watch CNN literally every morning ... every night. Can you say something positive or neutral? I mean, it’s like a constant barrage. So people absorb that, and then when they’re angry because of gas prices, those punches land.”

Trump might be too busy hunting for illegal votes to focus on the press after the midterms. He might be too fixated on mail ballots or slow vote counts to blame the press primarily. But he will blame the press sooner or later, and so will many Republicans. They love to complain that the press doesn't give them a fair shake. (Here's the Media Research Council in summer 2020 asserting that the three major television networks had broadcast "150 TIMES More Negative News on Trump than Biden.") Trump will probably try to weaponize this idea after Election Day. It won't surprise me if he files lawsuits, or orders his Justice Department to find criminal liability. If this happens, none of it will change the outcome, but it will please what's left of the GOP base, and it will be another assault on the First Amendment.