Rachel Maddow called out President Obama for "sort of changing his mind" on the issue of a federal shield law once he became president.
Maddow reacted to what she called the "bombshell revelation" that the Department of Justice secretly obtained the phone records of AP journalists. The Justice Department was investigating a leak that was responsible for an AP story on a thwarted Al Qaeda terror plot that was published around this time last year.
"Who knows what kind of irrevocable harm this has caused," Maddow said, adding that confidential sources would probably question speaking to the AP again, after knowing that the Justice Department obtained the news organization's phone records.
Maddow said that while a senator, Obama supported a federal shield law and co-sponsored 2007 legislation that was eventually killed by a Republican filibuster. Once he became president, the only actions Obama took surrounding federal shield law legislation was to limit that protection when it came to issues of national security.
On Wednesday, the Obama administration asked Sen. Schumer to reintroduce federal shield law legislation from 2009. In response to that legislation, Maddow said, "Yes, right. That is a good start. Keep going."
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