Trump Demands Networks Retaliate Against Guests Who Discussed Evidence of Collusion

President Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign attempted to intimidate cable news networks who covered Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe on Monday but earned only derision from journalists and others.

Tim Murtaugh, communications director for Trump's campaign, sent a memo to TV news producers at networks including CNN and MSNBC, imploring them to either ban guests who had claimed there was evidence that Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia, or challenge them on their claims.

"You should begin by asking the basic question: Does this guest warrant further appearances in our programming, given the outrageous and unsupported claims made in the past?" wrote Murtaugh to the networks.

"If these guests do reappear, you should replay the prior statements and challenge them to provide the evidence which prompted them to make the wild claims in the first place," he added.

The memo was circulated a day after Attorney General William Barr said that Mueller's report had cleared the president of having coordinated with Russian officials and was inconclusive as to whether Trump committed obstruction of justice.

A number of critics condemned the Trump campaign's apparent desire to compile a list of "political enemies."

While many on the left have called for introspection from the media in the wake of the Mueller investigation, as Murtaugh did in his memo,some rejected the campaign's assertion that accusations made against Trump--considering the fact that his former campaign manager and former national security adviser were among the34 Trump associates who were indicted as a result of the probe--were particularly "outrageous" at the time they were made.