MSNBC host emotionally warns freedom of the press could end if Trump wins: 'I might not be sitting here'
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace grimly warned that the free press and her own show could be ended by former President Trump if he wins re-election in November.
The left-wing host opened her "Deadline: White House" show Monday by recapping Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner, where President Biden told the press to remember "what's at stake" in the next election.
The annual dinner for media elites had a "dark undercurrent" this year with the threat of a Trump re-election looming, Wallace said.
"The annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner is one of the symptoms, one of the signs of a healthy, functioning democracy," she began her remarks. "It’s a coming together and, at its core, the president doing everything right celebrates and honors the free press. Behind the levity, though, there was something darker, a darker undercurrent, if you will, and a point that the president had to make. And it was more profoundly serious."
"Because at this exact time next year, depending on what happens in November, seven months from now, we can’t say for certain that there would even be a White House Correspondents’ Dinner or even a free press or even a White House press corps. Right? You don’t have to have one. Could be another norm Trump blows up," Wallace continued.
She appeared to grow emotional after playing a clip of Biden warning the assembled journalists about Trump's "attack on our democracy."
"I’ve seen that toast a bunch of times, but it landed very differently this year," Wallace said. "Because depending what happens in November, seven months from right now, this time next year, I might not be sitting here. There might not be a White House Correspondents’ Dinner or free press."
"And while our democracy won’t exactly fall apart immediately without it, the real threat looms larger. A candidate with outward disdain not just for a free press, but for all of our freedoms and for the rule of law itself," the MSNBC host said.
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Wallace's comments echoed the Democratic National Committee's warning that the White House Correspondents' Dinner could end if Trump returns to the White House.
The Trump campaign fired back at Wallace's remarks in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"The only things that will end her show are her s----y ratings and the temper tantrums she has during her segments," Trump Campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement. "She has a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome and is in desperate need of medical care."
MSNBC did not immediately return a request for comment.