Transcript: Trump Press Ban Backfires as Leaks Reveal Its Dark Motive

As Trump’s barring of news organizations starts appearing rooted in his fury over recent losses, a defender of democracy explains why the stakes of this dust-up are bigger than they might appear.

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the September 22 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.

Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.

Three news organizations just sued the Trump administration after Donald Trump banned them from the White House grounds. They alleged that their First Amendment rights had been violated. Amusingly, to show that Trump is retaliating against them for their reporting, the organizations leaned on Trump’s own words and tweets, which state explicitly that this is what he’s doing.

Trump’s rage at the media is backfiring in another way, too. Other news organizations, in solidarity with Trump’s targets, have joined in suspending the pool, so Trump isn’t getting TV coverage for some very big events. Meanwhile, Trump’s aides are leaking that Trump is lashing out at the media because he feels increasingly powerless as a potential election loss looms.

We think Trump is headed for a major humiliation here in more ways than one, so we’re working through it all with Kristy Parker, counsel at Protect Democracy. Kristy, thanks for coming on.

Kristy Parker: Thanks for having me.

Sargent: So on Friday, Trump banned CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House grounds, openly due to their coverage. They just sued the Trump administration. Now TV networks have joined them, so there’s no pool coverage, and Trump’s events are already not getting covered. Kristy, maybe we can start here. How unusual is it for any of this to happen?

Parker: I don’t think we’ve ever seen another political leader in this country be so blatant and overt in his desire to eliminate freedom of the press as it pertains to the way they cover him. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like that.

We’ve certainly seen politicians have contentious relationships with the press. We’ve seen them try to control narratives and curtail the press in various ways. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone behave the way Trump does.

Sargent: The lawsuit filed by CNN, MS Now, and Politico argues that Trump and the White House engaged in discrimination against them for their viewpoints or reporting. And to do this, they cite Trump’s own words and tweets. For instance, on Friday, Trump announced this ban during an eruption of rage on Truth Social, in which he said: “I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning fake news CNN, MS Now, and Politico as a result of their constant reporting fake news.”

Kristy, there he says, I’m banning them as a result of their reporting, right? I mean, that’s the essence of this, isn’t it?

Parker: I mean, as a lawyer, I almost have to thank him, because he makes the job of lawyers very easy when it comes to doing something that typically has been considered difficult, which is proving motive.

He announces his motives, makes it very plain what he’s doing. And you know, we’ve heard the old saying, when people tell you who they are, believe them. And, you know, that’s what we should do with him.

Sargent: There are some other good examples of this as well. The lawsuit cites Trump justifying his ban this week. He said this: “There’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories.” Then he reiterates that, saying they “purposely write negative news.”

He doesn’t get to make that decision, though, Kristy. He actually thinks he has this power, I think. He thinks he has dictatorial power, that he can decree that something doesn’t count as actual news and then ban it. But what’s funny, I think, is that in declaring this power for himself, he admits the corruption of it all and creates an actual legal vulnerability, right? Like, there really is a legal vulnerability in these admissions, isn’t there?

Parker: I mean, he’s giving away the whole game with the admissions. He is expressly saying, I am retaliating against the press because of the content of their speech. I am denying them access to me because I don’t like what they report. And when he’s saying that there’s something wrong with a country that allows things like that, what he’s really saying is there’s something wrong with America, because that is fundamentally who we are.

We distinguish our democracy from other forms of government because we do allow the people to criticize the government. That’s the central feature of the whole thing. It’s, you know, the government answers to us. We can criticize the government. And the press is our intermediary in doing that.

Sargent: I think it’s important to........

© New Republic