Maddow: ‘It’s a dangerous time for the First Amendment’ – The Hill

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow told NBC's Seth Meyers that"its a dangerous time for the first amendment and the free press" under President Trump.

Theres never been a president who is more addicted to news about himself and whos more responsive to the news that he supposedly thinks is so worthless, said Maddow on "Late Night." So its a weird tension."

"Its a dangerous time for the First Amendment and the free press in this country," she continued. "At the same time, were oddly influential with the guy who wants to kill us.

I talked to him during the primaries. He was an announced candidate, said Maddow, who indicated Trump's handlers initiated the off-the-record call in advance of a possible on-the-record interview.

I had this conversation with him. Id sort of said he had good chances against his Republican primary opponents and we kind of dished dirt on all the things he thought was wrong with all his Republican primary opponents.

The Maddow interview with Trump never happened, as the candidate mostly did phone interviews on MSNBC with the "Morning Joe" team of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

Trump has not appeared on the network in any capacity since May of 2016 after a falling out with the early morning hosts.

A recent analysis conducted by The Intercept shows Maddow dedicated 53 percent of her highly rated program over a recent six-week stretch to Russia and possible ties to Trump.

Maddows Russia coverage has dwarfed the time devoted to other top issues, including Trumps escalating crackdown on undocumented immigrants (1.3 percent of coverage); ObamaCare repeal (3.8 percent); the legal battle over Trumps Muslim ban (5.6 percent), a surge of anti-GOP activism and town halls since Trump took office (5.8 percent), and Trump administration scandals and stumbles (11 percent)," the analysis reads.

The breakdown was conducted between Feb. 20 and Mar. 31.

During that stretch, "The Rachel Maddow Show" enjoyed its best ratings in nearly a decade, easily topping CNN and finishing at the top of all of cable news for four consecutive weeks throughout the month of March.

For the month of April, "The Rachel Maddow Show was the second-most-watched program in cable news, only behind the combined 8 p.m. ET programming of "The O'Reilly Factor," which went off the air on April 18, and "Tucker Carlson Tonight," which moved to 8 p.m. ET on April 24.

Overall, MSNBC was the second-most-watched network in basic cable for the third straight month, trailing only Fox News.

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Maddow: 'It's a dangerous time for the First Amendment' - The Hill