Top Kari Lake campaign adviser jokes about sending journalists to ‘the gulag’ — then doubles down

A senior adviser to current US Senate hopeful Kari Lake has called for journalists to be “sent to the gulag” over a seemingly mundane conversation one reporter recounted having with a Democratic election canvasser getting out the vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Pressed on the issue, top GOP operative Caroline Wren — who was intimately involved with the January 6, 2021 “March to Save America” rally that incited the subsequent riot at the US Capitol — referred to the media as the “enemy of the people,” disparaging reporters as humorless drones who can’t take a joke and reiterating her wish to see them imprisoned in labor camps if Donald Trump retakes the White House.

Wren posted her original comment Sunday night on X, in response to a tweet by Brahm Resnik, a journalist at Phoenix, Arizona NBC affiliate KPNX/12 News, who said he had answered a knock on his door at home a few minutes earlier.

“Convo w Dem canvasser: ‘Is (your son) at home?’” Resnik’s tweet read. “Me: ‘No. He moved out of state several years ago. How many doors have you knocked?’ Her: ‘Thousands. We’re down to voters who moved or dead people.’ #BattlegroundAZ”

While others shared similar experiences, with one area canvasser saying he had come across a “[l]ot of empty houses, folks who had moved etc,” Wren apparently interpreted things quite differently, tweeting, “Brahm Resnik just out here blatantly promoting election fraud. He should be the first journalist sent to the gulag.”

When The Independent asked Wren on Monday to comment on the post, she first texted three “rolling on the floor laughing” emojis, followed by a swipe at the media at large.

“I know humor is lost on journalists, but the gulag reference is a running joke among those of us with a sense of humor,” Wren replied.

In response to a follow-up query about how this sort of talk might be misconstrued as a call to action rather than a joke, amid Donald Trump’s unceasing rhetoric about the press being “the enemy of the people,” and saying at a recent rally that he wouldn’t mind if the reporters covering the event were to get shot, Wren texted back, “The press are the enemy of the people.”

“Where has Trump said he wants to put journalist [sic] in the gulag?” Wren wrote. “If he does, I hope Brahm is first.”

To the notion of reporters being assassinated for doing their jobs, Wren responded by texting an “eye-roll” emoji, followed by, “Thoughts and prayers.”

Resnik declined to comment.

Trump has long applauded the specter of violence against members of the media. Over the course of his political career, Trump has described a reporter getting hit with a police officer’s rubber bullet as “a beautiful sight,” basked in reports of then-GOP Rep. Greg Gianforte’s body slamming a journalist in 2018, has openly fantasized about jailing journalists who protected the identities of their sources, and regularly turns his rally crowds against reporters there to cover the goings-on. In the past eight weeks alone, Trump launched more than 100 attacks against the press, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

“Trump’s tirades against the press have become so commonplace that we risk not even noticing them anymore,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “But the regularity of Trump’s abuse only adds to the urgency to call them out. The dangers of growing numb to Trump’s attacks on the media cannot be overstated – what starts as a verbal insult can easily turn into something far more serious if left unchecked. RSF is deeply concerned that violent rhetoric can easily lead to violent actions.”

Some 75 journalists in the United States have been physically assaulted so far in 2024, according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Since 2017, the organization’s data shows that 321 journalists have been shot or shot at, 374 have been attacked by private citizens, and seven have been assaulted by politicians.