'We are not experiencing the best of times': Ruth Bader Ginsburg says public reaction to Trump gives her 'hope'

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg weighed in on the reactions to President Donald Trump's first month in office in a pair of interviews published Thursday.

Ginsburg, who called Trump a "faker" in the throes of a bitter election, had more critical words for the Trump administration - though she avoided calling the president out by name.

During an NPR-moderated event in Washington, Ginsburg hinted at Trump's travel ban, touting what she said "makes America great ... the idea of our nation being receptive to all people, welcoming all people."

The outspoken judge also called up the importance of the US Constitution, saying "For the most part, those are our ideals, our treasured First Amendment and the notion that in our nation, we are many and yet we are one," she said, giving a hat-tip to freedom of the press.

In an earlier interview with the BBC Ginsburg referenced former President Richard Nixon as an example, saying: "I lived in the famous Watergate. That story might never have come out if we didn't have the free press." Watergate helped hasten Nixon's 1974 resignation.

When asked why she was so passionate about the free press, Ginsburg responded: "I read The Washington Post and The New York Times every day ... I think that the reporters are trying to tell the public the way things are."

Ginsburg implied that America right now is not owning up to all of its ideals: "We are not experiencing the best of times," she said, "but there's hope in seeing how the public is reacting to it."