It’s Official: With “Vermin,” Trump Is Now Using Straight-up Nazi Talk He’s telling us what he will do to his political enemies if he’s president again. Is anyone listening?
I feel pretty safe in saying that we can now stop giving him the benefit of that particular doubt. His use—twice; once on social media, and then repeated in a speech—of the word “vermin” to describe his political enemies cannot be an accident. That’s an unusual word choice. It’s not a smear that one just grabs out of the air. And it appears in history chiefly in one context, and one context only.
Likely liability… Saying "X" puts you in the way of more lawsuits than "so-and-so says 'X'"
You're possibly correct, though my understanding is journalism gets enough freedom for it to be OK, but that potentially has to be resolved in court which takes money. They'd rather not be totally honest than lose a little profit.
That title is totally honest though? They are reporting the fact that the Biden campaign said X. Deciding whether or not that is an accurate portrayal of Trump is a matter for opinion and analysis section not news.
Also the Guardian is a UK publication, defamation is slightly easier to win in the UK, thus more likely to be costly for the defendant. Truth is not an absolute defense like it is in the US.