McCain rips Trump over threatened 'Fake News Awards': 'Stop attacking the press'

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U.S. Senator John McCain wants President Trump to stop attacking the American free press.

The Arizona Republican and Vietnam War veteran penned a critical op-ed in the Washington Post on Tuesday, one day before the U.S. leader's teased "Fake News Awards" were scheduled to take place.

"The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday," Trump wrote last week. "The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!"

McCain says the 45th president's assault on American media provides cover for oppressive global regimes to "follow suit."

"He [Trump] has threatened to continue his attempt to discredit the free press by bestowing 'fake news awards' upon reporters and news outlets whose coverage he disagrees with," McCain writes. "Whether Trump knows it or not, these efforts are being closely watched by foreign leaders who are already using his words as cover as they silence and shutter one of the key pillars of democracy."

RELATED: A running list of all the times Trump has attacked 'fake news' on Twitter

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 2017 was one of the most dangerous years for journalists with a documented 262 cases of journalists imprisoned for their work. Pointing to nations like Russia, Venezuela and Turkey with a history of censorship and media assault, McCain notes that a national leader directly opposed to its country's media is historically more common in non-democratic governments than in the United States.

"Trump’s attempts to undermine the free press also make it more difficult to hold repressive governments accountable," McCain continued. "For decades, dissidents and human rights advocates have relied on independent investigations into government corruption to further their fight for freedom. But constant cries of 'fake news' undercut this type of reporting and strip activists of one of their most powerful tools of dissent."

Although Trump had tweeted of the event last week, the "Fake News Awards" do not appear on the president's Wednesday schedule.