On Tuesday's The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC, during a discussion of attempts by Russia to influence the U.S. presidential election, former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson hyperbolically likened President Donald Trump's manner to that of "the Soviet old playbook that Putin still seems to be using."
Host Melber introduced a clip of a Russia analyst who argued that it is important for Russian President Vladimir Putin to portray the U.S. as an enemy for domestic political reasons, even though President Trump is perceived to be relatively friendly to Russia. Melber posed: "Jill, walk us through your views and that propaganda machine which I think you know well."
Abramson claimed a similarity between President Trump and the Soviet Union as she responded:
Putin is among the most artful users of propaganda and has raised it to a new art form, but, you know, like Trump, he creates his own reality. It doesn't need necessarily to comport with the facts.
And we see how our own President does that on a daily basis, and the real news media tries its best to hold his feet to the fire. You know, what he says bears so little relationship to the truth, that it almost seems like something out of the Soviet old playbook that Putin still seems to be using.
