Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) gave a powerful speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate today all but saying outright that Donald Trump’s assaults on the truth and the press are despotic threats to our democracy. Left unsaid, but perhaps just as significant, is Fox News’ aiding and abetting of the despotism.

The entire speech is worth watching. But a few excerpts bear special attention here as they relate to Fox News' role in promoting despotism:

“When a figure in power reflexively calls any press that doesn’t suit him ‘fake news,’ it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, not the press.”

The same is true for Fox News. Fox not only bolsters Trump’s “fake news” attacks on outlets that don’t serve as same-minded admirers, it actually celebrates his attacks.

“’The enemy of the people,’ was what the president of the United States called the free press in 2017.

Mr. President, 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."

I don’t recall hearing anyone on Fox use the phrase “enemy of the people” to describe the press but that is certainly the impression Fox deliberately works to convey about any media not in line with its own Trump cheerleading.

“[M]any untruths [promulgated by Trump] are not at all trivial – such as the seminal untruth of the president’s political career - the oft-repeated conspiracy about the birthplace of President Obama. Also not trivial are the equally pernicious fantasies about rigged elections and massive voter fraud, which are as destructive as they are inaccurate – to the effort to undermine confidence in the federal courts, federal law enforcement, the intelligence community and the free press, to perhaps the most vexing untruth of all – the supposed “hoax” at the heart of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation."

Every one of these untruths have been promoted and given credence on Fox:

“The impulses underlying the dissemination of such untruths are not benign. They have the effect of eroding trust in our vital institutions and conditioning the public to no longer trust them. The destructive effect of this kind of behavior on our democracy cannot be overstated.”

Hear, hear.

Watch Flake’s speech below. You can read the full transcript here.