Senator John McCain, a conservative Republican from Arizona, slammed President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media this week by noting dictators “get started by suppressing free press.”

“I hate the press,” the Arizona Republican sarcastically told NBC News’ Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.” “I hate you especially. But the fact is we need you. We need a free press. We must have it. It’s vital.”

But he continued, “If you want to preserve — I’m very serious now — if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press,” McCain said in the interview. “And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started.”

“They get started by suppressing free press, in other words, a consolidation of power — when you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press,” McCain said. “And I’m not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I’m just saying we need to learn the lessons of history.”

Imagine if President Trump announced that he wanted to oust California from the United States. If it weren’t for us, after all, Trump would have won the popular vote he so lusts after by 1.4 million votes. Trump just might be happy with the Calexit petition. Petition signature gathering for a “Calexit” vote was approved by the California Secretary of State on January 27. If approved by California voters it would begin the long, multi-step process for withdrawing California from the United States.

Read those 14 Characteristics Of Fascism listed on this web site and elsewhere and tell me Donald Trump is not on the path to creating a dictatorship.