April Ryan is done with Donald Trump and Sarah Huckabee Sanders' attacks on the press. After the dustup with Jim Acosta during Wednesday's White House press briefing, she joined CNN's Brooke Baldwin to let them all have it.

Ryan reminded viewers that Trump has "been the biggest leader when it comes to railing against the press," especially "when it comes to fake news."

"He's issued 'Fakeies,' if you will, those fake awards. It's not a good look, it's not a good situation," she continued.

She then reminded Trump that he took an oath to defend the constitution, but Trump has "gone against that" when he attacks the press.

Reminder: Trump told James Comey that reporters ought to be tossed in jail. "They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend and they're ready to talk," he told Comey.

"We are not yes men. That's the issue so many people want us to fall in line to say, yes, we are not saying yes, we are not saying no," she continued. "We're asking pertinent questions that maybe this administration may not like."

After enumerating the issues before them, which include uncomfortable subjects like the fact that Trump is not just under investigation by Congress but also the Special Counsel, and the pesky fact that his personal attorney's offices were just raided, she asked, "What is wrong with asking these questions?"

"This has been going on for a long time. and unfortunately, you know, this morning I got a call from one of the journalists who has been under attack as well as myself who said over on Fox News they were railing against the Variety article talking about the fact that we are getting death threats."

April Ryan began receiving death threats after she asked Trump if he would step down just after Cohen's office was raided.

"And why are we getting death threats?," she continued. "Because the words are going out into the atmosphere that we are less than human, that we're doing some kind of job that's not legal, legitimate!"

Angrier now, she went on. "We are the free and independent press. we have been part of this nation, part of the constitution, we are part of the underpinnings of this nation. And for a President of the United States to put those words out there and for Sarah Huckabee Sanders to say it's not true that he's done that, there's a disconnect. A huge disconnect," she concluded.

Yes, there is a disconnect. And further to that disconnect, it gets to a point where the responsible press would prefer to pay attention to a white hat on the lovely head of the First Lady rather than the slow approach of fascism.

Adele Stan writes:

News outlets were no doubt grateful for something elegant and surprising to adorn their front pages or lead their broadcasts. Because under Trump, the news is ugly pretty much all of the time. And much of that ugliness is the kind of thing done to prime a population to accede to a coming crackdown.

[...]

Meanwhile, Jeff Sessions, Trump’s beleaguered attorney general, is well along the path to revoking any shred of civil rights afforded Americans while engaging with law enforcement. From the start, Sessions sent a message when he said he would loosen Justice Department oversight of police departments known as violators of the rights of citizens, especially black and brown citizens.

Americans inside law enforcement and out heard the message. In Sacramento, Stephon Clark was gunned down in his grandmother’s backyard earlier this month by police officers who suspected him of breaking a car window. Two black men were arrested in Philadelphia for refusing to buy something while waiting there for a friend. On April 22, Chikesia Clemons,a black woman was thrown to the floor of a Waffle House in Alabama for disputing the restaurant’s demand that she pay for a plastic spoon. That same day, a black man, James Shaw Jr., heroically wrested an assault rifle from a white man who had already killed four people of color in a Waffle House in Tennessee. The white man had ties to the far-right “sovereign citizen” movement.

The president has yet to mention the incident, or to hail Shaw as a hero. Might upset the base, you see.

How ‘bout that white hat on Melania?

Death threats to reporters, Black men gunned down in the streets, brutal agents of the state coming for immigrants -- It's all part of the larger crackdown.

Fox News laughs, and Melania's hat becomes the topic of conversation.