Trump Wants the FCC to “Punish” NBC's Kristen Welker for Telling the Truth

0:00With Cricket Wireless, you can count on reliable nationwide 5G. Because Cricket Wireless is on the AT&T network, which means you can start listening to that new album that just dropped at home while running errands and at the gym without any hiccups. Find plans with unlimited data for every lifestyle and price point. Switch to Cricket today. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Hi, I'm Sean Evans from Hot Ones and I want to tell you about YouTube Premium. It has offline downloads, so you can watch without Wi-Fi, background play, so you can lock your phone and it still plays baby. Oh, and it is completely ad-free. Yes, I said it ad-free. Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Trial eligibility varies, terms apply, cancel anytime. Hey everyone, it's me Sam Stein, managing editor at the bulk and I'm joined by Ben Parker who is my co-pilot really on the editing front. We're here to talk about a pretty atrocious day of attacks on the press and free speech

1:03from the Trump administration. I know it seems like every day is atrocious, but there's been four, maybe five examples in the past 24 hours that in a normal administration, we would be apoplectic, but because the other two windows move so much with Trump, these just come fast and furious. Ben, I'm going to start with the Kristen Walker one. So basically meet the press, Kristen Walker is the host. She has her Sunday program, Trump clearly is obsessed with it. And after she was done today, the president puts out a bleed and I'm going to be part of it because it's incredibly long, but it goes like this, Kristen Walker, the unpopular hostess, he puts that in quotes, of the ones great meet the press, now considered meet the fake press, just stated that Donald Trump has, quote, mixed results on his endorsements of candidates in the recent wins of Darlene Graham and Mike Mazzie stand at 100% for the US Senate and 98% for the US House recently and over the long term. Okay, this is normal stuff for Trump, but then here we go.

2:04How can anyone be allowed to say this working for freely given public airwaves results are attached because of this purposefully purposeful inaccuracy she will be reported to the FCC for review or punishment. Look, I don't even think Walker said this necessarily, but whatever, that's not the point. Secondarily, there have been mixed results. Like I know he's that's not the stats at 98% and so like that's just in the primaries, but he has had notable losses. But obviously the big thing here is I don't like what you said on your airwaves. I'm going to be reporting you to the cops. And as everyone knows, Brendan Carr who chairs the FCC is just absolutely going to do Trump's bidding. Yeah, I mean, there's a few things going on here. One of them is even if someone said something, even if Trump is right that the airwaves are public property and that's sort of a regulatory matter not an actual property matter, whatever, I'm not a lawyer, even if he's right.

3:04The fact that she said something that the president himself doesn't like doesn't mean that it's bad for the country. This is once again Trump saying if it belongs to America, you know, it states it belongs to me, Donald Trump, and not differentiating himself between like what's good for the country, what's good for him personally. And also, yeah, like there is a well established principle, but the government is not supposed to do things just because the president feels like it. There's supposed to have good reasons. And Trump, and this is just like example, one million, doesn't seem to carry. He's saying like, nope, you got me mad. So you're going to face an administrative hurdle. That is not super legal and certainly not how the government is supposed to work. Yeah, 100%. I mean, this is exactly what is happening here, which is that Trump thinks that if it's bad press for Trump, it's bad for the country and therefore it's deserving of a regulatory matter. I know Brendan Carr is a total lackey. Now what usually happens is that he threatened something and it goes nowhere. But the act of the threat itself is the story. Whether or not Carr falls through in a car probably put out a statement saying,

4:04oh, Mr. President, nothing will happen. We shouldn't live in a society where journalists feel threatened or that they feel like they have to hold back on accurate reporting for fear that the administration of the president is going to sick is regulatory guards on you. It's detestable. NBCPR has put a statement saying, Christine is one of the best in the business and we stand by her succinct to the point. And look, if this was one thing, we could just sort of chalk it up to Trump just being crazed and having a day on Sunday. But this is time and again, especially in the last 24 hours. So there's a couple of stories that have caught my interest. The New York Times reported yesterday that the Treasury Department is denying G20 credentials to specific reporters from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, including the New York Times Treasury reporter on Rapp Report. He's covered the department since like 2017. They defended the exclusion saying access comes with responsibility, report information consisting with quote, established journalistic standards.

5:07No, 300 other journalists are being emitted. Trump also had a grotesque tweet about Maghrebren, who is probably the most accomplished Trump chronicleer in the business. So they're just picking and choosing who to go after and they're making a big stink of going after the New York Times. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that because I have like three other stories Ben. Yeah, no real quick. I just the idea that the Trump administration is giving a lecture about proper journalistic standards is just laughable. I mean, come on of all the people to listen to a lecture about how journalism works. The Trump administration is pretty far down that list. I do want to say just one other thing about the G 22, which is this is a mistake the administration keeps on making, which is they think that if they cut off access to the media, the bad news will go away. First of all, it won't. It'll find a way out. We'll talk about that in a minute. But also like we're having a tre- We're having trouble right now. Scott Beesson, specifically the Treasury Secretary, is having trouble with the bond market and people believing that it's worth buying American debt. If he says you're not allowed to cover the Treasury meeting or the Treasury

6:08G 20, is that going to keep people more or less likely to trust the government? Like they're making the problems they have created worse because by trying to cover it up, like it is a feedback loop of bad policy. There's a really valid point and I don't think they get it, which is that they lose credibility. And so when they want accurate information out there, no one's going to believe anything they say, which is problematic for obvious instance. All right, a couple of the stories that really jumped out of me. The Post this morning has this big exclusive pretty from the people who cover the defense department and people who served in the defense department. They think this is shocking in terms of the magnitude leak. It reads like this, several US military leaders have advised defense secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonged large scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the US homeland. That's going to people familiar with a recent assessment prepared for the Pentagon chief. The warnings, Peter and the August 14th edition of the Secretary of Defense orders book SDOB. These people said they describe the assessment to the Washington Post

7:09on condition of anonym because the document is classified. So this is a serious leak. It's the leak summarizing a classified document. The Pentagon did not take this particularly well. Infantry Dort, who is a active military official, who are calling Wilson Maraud about who's part of this cadre of online provocateurs that are apparently employed by Pete Hegseth to stir shit up. He literally accused them of the reporter. He says another day, another piece of undermining your countryman in hopes that they are killed so you can get another headline. He accused the Washington Post of warning service members killed. Okay. The Famous Royale. And then there's Sean Parnell, who is Hegseth's top spokesperson, press person. He tweets publishing highly classified assessments for the Secretary's orders book is a crime to portrayal the force. And much of what they're publishing is inaccurate. Of course, we demand candid military advice. Non-concurers are standard. The Secretary of Seasom constantly.

8:09That's how you want a real military. So, Infantry Dort is defamatory. Parnell hilariously basically confirms the validity of the story and then says that it's a crime. So, again, no, this is madness. I mean, they're threatening to go after these reporters, illegal like on the grounds of accusing them one to see people die. Yeah, what's amazing here is that they're sort of running out of people to go after. If you look at just some of the names that were mentioned in this report about some of the officers who delivered the assessment that we can't keep the status quo and around going, one of them, the name that stuck out to me the most, Admiral Coddle, the Chief of Naval Operations. He was the one who we just learned a couple weeks ago was giving Hegseth political advice when he was when Hegseth was going through confirmation so that Coddle could win this job. He was being very political in a completely inappropriate way to get the job he's now in. And he's not saying, yeah, no, we can't keep this going. Another one, General Greenkewitch, or Greenkewitch, I'm much more the pronunciation,

9:10who I believe has only been in his role as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and Commander of European Commands in 2025. General Donovan in Southern Command where we have all those boat strikes going on. He was on this list and Admiral Papparo of Pacific Command recently renamed from Indo-Pacific Command, who's got to deal with China. And these are all people saying like, hey, you know, you can't keep this going forever. As you said, the Pentagon spokesman who may be on the short list to be the next secretary of the army basically confirmed this is true. And yeah, by the way, leaking this is a crime. And it's serious, the fact that it's such a secret and sensitive document suggests that that leak is coming from somewhere very high up that has some people who have with a lot of responsibility very, very concerned. Yeah, I mean, yes. The leak of classified information is a crime. The journal is publishing it is part of the job. And so they should turn their attention on their own people. The last story I want to talk about, which I mean relative to the others, I guess it's, well, it is a big deal,

10:11but it might not have stuck out as much, but it really bothered me, which was this Guardian story. And basically what it gets at is the acquiescence of big tech to the administration. And I'm going to have a little rant after I read this, so bear with me. So they write, the Trump administration has been deploying an obscure legal maneuver to try to obtain private information on journalists, nonprofits and unions raising alarm over power the government has asserted without judicial oversight. Okay. So they said in February of the year, federal prosecutors twice sought search warrants for account information for the YouTube channel Georgia Fort Minneapolis journalists and another journalist Don Lemon, whoever knows both of them have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in connection to a protest at the Minneapolis church in January. Judge twice rejected the request. Okay. About a month after the judges ruling late February, the government said it was withdrawing the request, but officials hadn't given up on getting the data. Less than a month later, DHS served Google with far different requests

11:12for the YouTube information. This time, DHS utilized a different method that didn't require approval from a judge, only the sign off from a DHS official. It served Google with an administration summons, signing the Sark cane provision. The provision gives DHS broad power to inspect records. DHS summons was issued under the statute that does not give the agency broad part of demand records, but only in limited circumstances of being there in need of to investigate a customs issue. All right. For 75 years, Fiji Airways has been connecting Fiji to the world. And now it's time to celebrate. Fly direct from Los Angeles to Fiji or via Fiji to Australia or New Zealand with return fairs starting from just $875. Whether it's a long awaited holiday, a visit home or a journey somewhere new. There's never been a better time to travel with the world's happiest airline. As the one-world alliance member and American Airlines Advantage Program partner, your miles go further across the South Pacific. Book now at VG Airways.com or participating travel agents, conditions apply. With its abundant natural beauty,

12:13charming towns and friendly people, South Carolina offers the kind of discoveries that stay with you long after you've left. Like the realization you're good at something you'd never before tried. Or your first oyster roast, and a taste you didn't expect to love. And other times, it just hits. Like the view on a wind-swept Appalachian Mountedop. So come find the undiscovered you in South Carolina. Visit DiscoverSouthCareLine.com. People are outraged by this and they should be. I'm outraged by this because all the big tech folks, Chief among the Mark Zuckerberg and Metta's not in this story. Okay, so I'm gonna just be clear. But Chief among them was Mark Zuckerberg had a big old stink about how the Biden administration was trampling on free speech primarily because they were trying to get COVID disinformation off the big tech sites. And in the case of Metta Facebook, they reached out privately to the Biden administration and said, hey, there's a bunch of vaccine disinformation in your site.

13:14Can you take it off? And Mark Zuckerberg held this up as an example of horrific infringement on free speech, so much so that he justified becoming sort of a magite because of it. I've not heard a single fucking word from any of these big tech giants as they do this. They're issuing subpoenas for their records going around the need for judicial sign-off. And none of the big tech people are saying, hey, this is an infringement. This is trampling on free speech. And this gets to my bigger picture, which is people in real power have acquiesced. I'm glad that the NBC stood up for Christian Walker as they should. I'm really glad that the New York Times doesn't take shit from the Trump administration because they should. But too often, people like Bezos and Zuckerberg and these big tech companies, they're just willing to get along. And it's a shame and it exposes them as just absolutely hypocrites. That's my rant. No, I think I agree with everything you just said. Good rant, fully endorsed.

14:14And if anything, you're just underscored the need for independent media like the bulwark and flood people should support us become a bulwark plus member at thebolwork.com. Yeah, all right. While I hear you, Ben, I was gonna do the plug myself. People should, in fact, support the bulwark. It's important. Independent media matters. Media that actually stands up for the first amendment and actually stands up to the Trump administration matters in this moment. So if you haven't done already, subscribe to our feed or subscribe to our substack. Support the mission and thanks for tuning in. I appreciate it. Take care, Ben. This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. Last year, I went through many different life changes. I needed to take a pause and examine how I was feeling and the inside to better show up for the ones who need me to be my best version of myself. When you're navigating life's changes, Talkspace can help. Talkspace is the number one rated online therapy, bringing you professional support from licensed therapists and psychiatry providers

15:16that you can access anytime, anywhere. Living a busy life, navigating a long-distance relationship, becoming a first step father, Talkspace made all of those journeys possible. I could speak with my therapist in the office. I could speak with my therapist in the comfort of my home. I was never alone. Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a zero-dollar copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off your first month with promo code Space80 when you go to Talkspace.com. Match with a licensed therapist today at Talkspace.com. Save $80 with code Space80 at Talkspace.com. I can't believe Labor Day is almost here. I'm not ready to let summer go. We've got the picnic plan, friends are coming over, and my one stop before everyone arrives is always total wine and more. I'll grab wine, cocktails, and hard celtars. That's why I keep coming back to total wine. The selection is incredible. And with the lowest prices, it's easy to prep for the long weekend. This Labor Day, shop, total wine, and more. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina.

16:18Drink responsibly, be 21.