President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened a prominent NBC broadcast journalist with possible punishment by US media.
regulators, as the Republican expressed disappointment with coverage of his candidate endorsements ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to attack Kristen Welker as the “unpopular ‘hostess’ of the once great Meet the Press” talk show.
He objected to her having said the president had had “mixed results” on his endorsement of political candidates in party primaries, insisting the races had gone his way 98 percent to 100 percent of the time.
Welker, speaking early Sunday to a local NBC affiliate, said Trump would “loom large over these midterms.”
When it came to endorsements, she added, he “had some mixed results, but most recently, his pick of Senator Darline Graham… was successful in her primary battle.”
Trump, in his comments, said, “Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.” The Federal Communications Commission assigns and oversees licenses for radio and television broadcast frequencies.
“Unfortunately, she is not the only one,” he added. “The Radical Left News is going out of their way to harass, demean, and libel anything ‘TRUMP.’”
Welker is an award-winning journalist who earned bipartisan praise after moderating a 2020 presidential debate featuring Trump and Joe Biden, the Democrat who won that year’s election.
An NBC News spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, defended Welker on Sunday, telling AFP that “Kristen is one of the best in the business and we stand by her.”
Billionaire Trump used American media to his advantage over the years as a provocative real estate developer in New York. But as president he dramatically turned against the press and what he called “fake news.”
