Donald Trump on Sunday called for NBC's "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker to be "reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment" after she said candidates he endorsed had mixed results this election cycle. Trump called Welker "the Unpopular 'Hostess' of the once great Meet the Press, now considered Meet the Fake Press."
What did Welker say? The remarks behind Trump's Truth Social post came during a local segment in which Welker previewed her program with anchors on WRC, NBC's Washington, D.C. station, and not during Sunday's broadcast of "Meet the Press," Variety reported. Speaking in the run-up to the midterm elections later this year, she said Trump had enjoyed "mixed results," with some Republican candidates he backed losing in primaries, but also that he is "going to loom large over these midterms. There's no doubt about that." Candidates he backed who lost primaries include Randy Feenstra, a Republican candidate for Iowa governor, and Mike Lindell, the MyPillow chief executive who sought to be the Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota.
What can the FCC do? The commission cannot directly rebuke individual journalists, but it can put bumps in the path of the company that owns the station as well as NBC News, Variety reported. That company is NBCUniversal, a unit of Comcast that is slated to be spun off from its parent over the next several months. The FCC, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, has ordered Walt Disney Co. to file renewals for ABC's eight owned-and-operated stations years ahead of schedule, and Disney and ABC have alleged in a suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the commission is violating the First Amendment. The FCC has also probed whether "The View" violated so-called equal-time election laws, opening its investigation after James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate from Texas, appeared on the show in February.
How did NBC respond? "Kristen is one of the best in the business and we stand by her," NBC News said in a statement on Sunday afternoon, Variety reported. Many of the interviews Trump agrees to do with NBC News have been with Welker, and he has made a handful of appearances on "Meet the Press" to speak with her.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
