Trump seizes on NYU professor’s tweet to push change of libel laws
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President Trump on Monday tweeted that libel laws in the U.S. should be modified to hold the news media accountable and seized on a New York University professor’s false tweet as an example of journalistic malpractice.
Ian Bremmer, the president and founder of Eurasia Group and New York University political science professor, got in trouble Sunday for tweeting a fake quote attributed to Trump.
“Kim Jong Un is smarter and would make a better President than Sleepy Joe Biden,” Bremmer wrote in the now-deleted tweet, attributing it to Trump.
North Korea has labeled Biden a “fool of low IQ” and an “imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being” after the U.S. presidential hopeful recently called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a tyrant during a recent speech.
Bremmer was called out on Twitter by many notables.
Canadian journalist Daniel Dale tweeted: “This quote is fabricated. As often, no idea what Bremmer is doing.”
Geopolitics analyst Ankit Panda tweeted: “This is not a real Trump quote … If you’re basing your views of reality based on Ian Bremmer’s tweets in 2019, please reconsider.”
Bremmer later reportedly responded in a now-deleted tweet: “This is objectively a completely ludicrous quote. And yet kinda plausible. Especially on twitter, where people automatically support whatever political position they have. That's the point.”
Neither Bremmer nor NYU returned Fox News’ requests for comment.
Trump has said in the past that he intended on taking a “strong look at our country’s libel laws.”
Brian Hauss, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement January that Trump’s threat lacks teeth.
“There is no federal libel law, and the president does not have the authority to change state libel laws,” he said, adding that the “First Amendment provides strong protections against libel liability, particularly with respect to statements about public figures or matters of public concern.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report