President Donald Trump would not be liable if his supporters hurt reporters at one of his rallies, a lawyer and professor told the Washington Examiner.
Trump's bashing of — and even pointing out — the "dishonest media" is political speech; he's not advocating supporters to do something to reporters, Western Michigan University law professor Brendan Beery told the Examiner.
"He's off the hook while he's president for anything at all to do with politics or policy, even if it's scandalous," Beery said.
Trump once again made the media a target during his rally in Phoenix earlier this week, rousing his supporters to boos and chants, and even pointing out the "truly dishonest people right up there holding the cameras."
Legally, that wouldn't meet the standard.
"Bashing the media, he always ties it back to himself, and unfair coverage and all that. My guess is that a judge would look at all that and say I don't have to agree with it, but it's political," Beery told the Examiner. "That's your classic distinction between opinion and advocacy."
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