Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) does not believe taxpayers should subsidize fake news, and he’s filed a bill to cancel a prominent offender, the Wall Street Journal.
The freshman Floridian filed the Stop Unnecessary Expenditures Act, or the SUE Act, Tuesday night to prohibit the use of federal funds by Members of Congress to pay for a subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Fine’s move followed a much-maligned hit piece by the Journal that alleged that Trump sent a lewd letter to convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.
Trump denied sending the letter, yet the Journal published the dubious allegation regardless.
Fine believes Trump’s credible denial and insists the notion the letter came from Trump “just doesn’t make any sense.”
“The Democrats made stuff up about Donald Trump to try to take him out while he was running for president. If he’d actually done something real, Joe Biden would have released it,” he told Breitbart News. “So we know by definition, none of this can be true, right? If you’re willing to lie about Donald Trump to try to defeat him, if you actually had something that was bad, that was true, you would share it, and they didn’t.”
Fine wants repercussions for the recklessness.
“The SUE Act would say no more money to the Wall Street Journal, and members of Congress cannot subsidize the Wall Street Journal with subscriptions from their offices, which, frankly, is a good idea no matter what, but certainly given this incredible breach of journalistic ethics, it’s a no brainer,” he said.
Fine isn’t alone in seeking to hold the Journal accountable. The White House announced Tuesday it would remove the publication’s reporters from the press pool that covers the president.
“As the appeals court confirmed, the Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt explained. “Due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board.”
Fine agrees with the move.
“If they can make up the news, why does the White House need to give them access to the media room?” he asked. “They can just make it up without being there.”
The Journal and the New York Times have what the House Administration Committee called an “enterprise contract” where they offer bulk, discounted subscriptions to employees of the U.S. House of Representatives. Fine’s bill would eliminate the Wall Street Journal‘s contract.
“If you’re going to make up the news, you shouldn’t expect the taxpayers to pay for it,” he told Breitbart News.
After the story published, Trump made good on his threat to file a lawsuit against News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones & Company Inc., and the reporters of the article.
If the lawsuit is successful, the Journal may have to pay for its decision to publish the story regardless of whether taxpayers continue paying for subscriptions for Members of Congress.
“I hope your ‘exclusive’ is worth the millions of dollars you’re going to have to pay out,” Fine tweeted.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
