Donald Trump on Sunday said NBC’s Kristen Welker – host of Meet the Press – should face “rebuke or punishment” from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Preceding Trump’s comments was a live shot by Welker in which she described the success record of political candidates whom president had endorsed as “mixed” on Washington DC’s NBC affiliate prior to the airing of Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press, according to CNN media reporter and commentator Brian Stelter. The president then took verbal aim at Welker with a social media post deriding her as the “Unpopular ‘Hostess’ of … Meet the Fake Press,” accused her of “purposeful inaccuracy” and warned that she would “be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment”.
The post also said that Trump hoped his appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr – and Carr’s colleagues on the commission – “take this Threat to our Country very seriously”. Once Meet the Press actually started on Sunday, a guest analyst on the show said “the single most important factor in who the Republican nominee will be in [the presidential election of] 2028 will be who Donald Trump endorses”. Trump is estimated to have made more than 300 endorsements that resulted in the recipient winning.
In the election cycle leading up to November’s midterms, 214 of the 218 House candidates he endorsed winning their primaries, including all 24 Republican senate primaries. Meanwhile, in gubernatorial primaries, five of the 21 candidates he endorsed lost their primaries, among them Mike Lindell – who finished a distant second in Minnesota to state house speaker Lisa Demuth. The state’s supreme court on Saturday effectively confirmed Lindell’s 11-percentage-point defeat by rejecting his bid for a recount.
He had said days earlier that any of his endorsed candidates who lost were already faced with “impossible” races – but they had earned his support “out of loyalty”. How much power Trump’s endorsement carries has been a touchy issue for the president. On Friday, HBO Max talkshow host Bill Maher apologized to Trump for claiming that the president is winning “almost none of” his endorsements.
Trump had sent Maher statistics making the president’s case that the talkshow host was wrong. Welker and Trump have a contentious relationship. In June, he walked out of an hour-long interview with the host after being asked, among other unpleasant topics for him, about having pledged “no new wars” during his successful run for a second presidency.
He started war in Iran in late February alongside Israel, and Trump denied guaranteeing there would no wars if he were returned to the Oval Office. Have a good time.” He added: “You ought to straighten out your press. A country can never be great with a dishonest press.” Trump’s comments on Sunday about Welker were only the latest instance of him or his administration seeking to bring the weight of the FCC down on media outlets with whom he has become cross.
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