Republican Jeff Flake denounces Donald Trump's use of terms 'spoken by Stalin'
President Trump's use of the terms "fake news" and "enemy of the people" to describe the media are Stalin-esque, a Republican senator has said.
In a passionate speech on the Senate floor, Jeff Flake - a frequent Trump critic - called the president's repeated attacks on the media "shameful" and "repulsive" before comparing him to the Russian dictator Josef Stalin.
"The enemy of the people was how the president of the United States called the free press in 2017," Mr Flake, who represents Arizona but is retiring this year, said.
"It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies.
"It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase 'enemy of the people' that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of annihilating such individuals who disagreed with the supreme leader."
He said that "despotism" is the enemy of the people and that a free press is the "guardian of democracy".
"When a figure in power calls any press that doesn't suit him "fake news," it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, not the free press," he added.
Mr Trump announced earlier this month that he was going to hold the inaugural "Fake News Awards".
But there was no word on timings or how the "winners" would be announced late on Wednesday.