Biden defends free press
Former Vice President Joe Biden says attacks on the press are corrosive and dangerous. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
TRANSCRIPT +
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) Former Vice President Joe Biden described attacks on the press and the judicial branch as corrosive and dangerous, without mentioning President Donald Trump who has made incendiary comments about both institutions. Biden made the remarks in Washington, where he was receiving the Patriot Award for political courage and leadership from the Bipartistan Policy Center. Biden, who served two terms as vice president under Democratic President Barack Obama, received the award at the Newseum, a museum dedicated to journalism and First Amendment freedoms. Trump has called the media an "enemy of the American people" and often refers to negative coverage of his administration as "fake news." "To question the actual legitimacy of a free press is one of the most dangerous things out there. The degree that we depart and denigrate our institutions and the fourth estate, I think we really, honest to God, honest to God, weaken our ability for self-government," Biden said. "We undermine it and become weaker and not stronger."