Former President Donald Trump and host Kristen Welker appear in a prerecorded interview on “Meet the Press” at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on September 14, 2023 in Bedminster, New Jersey.
William B. Plowman | NBCU | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Sunday slammed NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker and threatened to report her to the Federal Communications Commission over her alleged characterization of the election results.
Trump criticized Welker after the “Meet the Press” host said he had “mixed results” with the candidates he supported during the campaign. A handful of Trump’s picks lost in this year’s primaries, including Minnesota gubernatorial candidate and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Iowa gubernatorial candidate Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa).
“How can someone who works for public broadcasting, given to us for free, say something like this?” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Because of this intentional inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for reprimand or discipline.”
Welker’s comments were not made on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.” Instead, the NBC host made the remarks during a pre-show segment on his local Washington, D.C., affiliate WRC-TV, CNN’s Brian Stelter said in a post on X.
“He’s going to be a huge presence in the midterms, there’s no question about that. Of course he’s endorsing a list of candidates in the primaries,” Welker said in the corner. “His performance has been mixed, but recently his pick, Sen. Darin Graham (of course, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham), won the primary and is now running against Dr. Annie Andrews in South Carolina.”
The president’s attack on Welker came after the Treasury Department banned economic reporters from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg from attending this week’s G20 summit in North Carolina, the paper said.
The Ministry of Finance did not grant credentials to the reporters, but the ministry told the newspaper that nearly 300 media workers, including at least one other newspaper reporter, were allowed to enter the country.
The exclusion is the latest example of the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict access to the press. Last year, the Pentagon imposed a strict new media policy and nearly all news organizations withdrew without signing agreements to abide by it.
President Trump has long derided news organizations as “fake news” and lashed out at reporters, but Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has shown a willingness to take action against allegations of bias during his second term. Last year, Kerr called for action against Jimmy Kimmel over comments he made on ABC’s late-night show. ABC then briefly took the show off the air, then reinstated it.
President Trump appears to have directed Carr to target NBC in a social media post.
“The report is an embarrassment to our country, and I hope that Chairman Brendan Kerr and the fine people on the committee will take this threat to our country seriously.”
In previous Truth Social posts, Trump expressed displeasure with polls used by news organizations to predict election results and suggested he would also investigate Carr’s FCC.
“The fake polls used by our fraudulent media are out of control and something must be done about it. The FCC is to the rescue!” the president said.
The president abruptly ended his meeting with Welker earlier this year after being questioned about evidence of his controversial “weaponized” funding and persistent claims of election fraud.
