Inside the White House press corps with John Fredericks and Hugo Lowell — The Listening Post

[0:00] I'm a White House correspondent with The Guardian in Washington. [0:03] I cover the Trump administration and its national security and legal policy. [0:08] I've covered Trump for about five years. [0:10] We're coming up to the briefing room now where there's exactly the space where Caroline Leavitt, [0:16] the press secretary, will brief. There's space in here for a bunch of reporters. [0:21] My name is John Fredericks. I'm a TV and radio talk show host. [0:26] I get to cover the president. Occasionally, I get to go into the Oval Office. [0:31] I was a Trump supporter even before he announced in 2015. [0:36] What's your time frame to make a decision on running for president, Mr. Trump? [0:41] I would say June, July. And I think people are going to be very shocked. [0:45] So I've been around the block, a Trump supporter, part of the MAGA media movement. [0:50] Wow. The approach to the press is certainly more combative overall. [0:58] We've seen the White House pull the Associated Press out of the press pool. [1:02] The AP is not allowed to go in with the rest of the pool. [1:05] And certainly you see his senior advisors be very combative towards the media on Twitter [1:11] and on Truth Social and on other social media. And they'll, you know, consistently attack them. [1:16] This White House communications team has made significant changes. [1:21] The first is they control the press pool rotation that covers the president on a daily basis. [1:29] I think they've opened it up to other media other than, you know, the very left-wing entrenched legacy [1:36] media. And probably the most significant thing is they opened up a seat on a rotation basis to what [1:42] they call new media, which means you get to sit and ask the first question. [1:47] In the White House, we are fully embracing new media. [1:51] They call it the new media seat. And I think this is the biggest difference [1:54] that has been implemented in this White House. [1:57] Typically, it's someone who works for a conservative outlet or an outlet that is friendly towards [2:03] the president and Republicans, podcasters, right-wing hosts, people who do streaming on their phones. [2:10] And all of a sudden, the White House has implemented this new seat [2:13] for someone that they are sympathetic to and will typically ask them easier questions [2:20] that the admin can then use to play off and deliver their messaging. [2:23] A lot of legacy media, some of the people in the front row seem to want to call this [2:28] an affordability crisis right now, forgetting the fact that over the last four years... [2:32] When Eric Bolling asked Caroline Levitt the question about gas prices and affordability, [2:38] he had this long preamble that effectively set up a straw man to say, [2:42] the media is reporting on this affordability crisis, but it's not real. [2:46] The White House, what is your response? [2:47] And Caroline quite effectively uses that to deliver her messaging. [2:52] Well, it's a great question, Eric, and it's a point of frustration for the president. [2:56] The question that was asked by Eric, I could have asked in 20 seconds. [3:01] He took two and a half minutes because he wanted to make a statement. [3:04] They want to get on TV. They want to be able to make a statement. [3:07] They want to get clicks. They want to put it on social media. [3:10] I'm not criticizing him. I wouldn't do it. [3:13] The role of the media in that room is supposed to be to hold the White House to account. [3:19] It's to, you know, grill the press secretary and say, you know, [3:22] what is what is the White House doing about these issues that, you know, [3:25] are affecting Americans lives every day? [3:27] I think really what it shows is the White House trying to find new ways to make it [3:32] make it seem like they have control of an app. [3:34] Yeah, because you're a left wing hack. You're not a reporter. [3:37] You mentioned that, you know, you're part of the MAGA media movement. [3:41] You've even had a few photos taken with Trump. [3:43] Are you concerned that people might see your journalism as untrustworthy, [3:47] that you are pro-Trump rather than... [3:49] I could care less. [3:50] Most of the people that are in there have an agenda. [3:53] That when you sit there and say, are you a journalist? [3:57] The questions the left wing liberal media asks every day when I'm in there, [4:02] the majority of them are gotcha ridiculous. [4:04] So they have their own agenda. [4:06] At least I'm honest about it. [4:07] I'm a Trump supporter and I ask questions that I believe are of interest to my audience, [4:14] which is, you know, very informed. [4:16] Trump is certainly really accessible to reporters now. [4:20] Between the phone calls and the number of events he does in the Oval Office, [4:24] which he opens up to the war, he also truths on social media at all times. [4:29] So it is in many ways true that he is much, much more accessible to individual reporters [4:35] than has been the case in previous administrations. [4:38] Obviously, the one major difference is that Trump picks up reporter calls [4:41] and a lot of people on the Trump beat have the president's personal number. [4:46] And in particularly newsy situations, for instance, the start of the conflict around, [4:50] you see a lot of reporters dial up Trump and Trump's quite happy to engage with these reporters. [4:55] Hey there. So I just got up the phone with President Trump. [4:59] It was a nine-minute phone interview and we talked just about the war. [5:05] It's a very convenient vehicle for Trump because he knows that if a reporter calls him up, [5:11] it's a very, very short interview. [5:13] They probably get a couple of questions in. [5:15] Trump can end the interview at any time. [5:17] He can say whatever he wants. And because it is a conversation with the president, [5:21] that reporter will go back to their respective outlet and that will be the biggest item [5:25] for that news outlet that day. [5:27] I mean, the number of journalist interviews he does one-on-one is pretty incredible. [5:34] I mean, it's every single week he'll talk to somebody. [5:37] When he is on the plane traveling with the press pool, [5:40] it's very rare that he doesn't come into the cabin and take questions. [5:45] Hello, everybody. [5:46] You guys good? [5:47] So we have a lot of links to talk about, but there's not much I can say to you about them, so. [5:55] I mean, this is the most accessible president. [5:57] Trump has insulted reporters in several different settings. [6:02] Sir, have you talked about selling oil? [6:04] Can you say why you're here? [6:07] They're a very obnoxious person. [6:08] Why do you blame the Biden administration? [6:10] Because they let him in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? [6:14] I think the general takeaway from that is it seems very unpresidential for Trump to be [6:24] throwing ad hominem insults at reporters, especially women. [6:29] You're a loud person. [6:30] And yet, at the same time, the country kind of shrugs [6:33] when this happens because it's kind of already baked into his brand. [6:36] I'm quiet, quiet. [6:38] People see Trump as this freewheeling, spitballing president. [6:45] And, you know, the White House likes to play into this. [6:47] And, you know, Caroline Levitt will defend Trump and say, [6:50] well, you know, he's just calling the shots as it is. [6:53] What did the president mean when he called reporter Piggy? [6:56] Look, the president is very frank and honest with everyone in this room. [7:01] A president Trump is not going to tolerate stupid gotcha questions. [7:05] And so he's going to call you out. [7:07] So if you're willing to engage in that form with the president of the free world, [7:12] and you want to ask a stupid gotcha question in order to get your soundbite on your network [7:18] and make it go viral on social media so that you can get notoriety and clicks, [7:22] he's going to call you out, as he should. I would do the same thing. [7:25] Trump has really tried to pressure the press in new ways in his second term. [7:31] He has launched a series of lawsuits. [7:34] He has had his FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr, threaten to pull broadcast licenses. [7:40] And the point of this, obviously, is to pressure the press into giving him more favorable coverage. [7:48] There is absolutely things you can do to lose your licenses. [7:51] And we have a lot of investigations going right now at the FCC. [7:54] So you have these two ideas of the White House saying, on the one hand, [7:59] you know, we are very transparent and we have a lot of freedom for reporters. [8:04] And on the other hand, you have Trump engaging in litigation against media companies. [8:08] President Trump is suing The New York Times, its publisher and four journalists for libels. [8:12] I actually don't think those ideas exist in tension with each other. [8:15] I think that it's all kind of the same. Both things can be true at the same time. [8:19] It's certainly true that access is far greater to Trump than it was under Biden or under Obama, [8:26] or under even kind of previous administrations dating back decades. [8:29] I also think it's probably upfront and quite honest for the Trump administration to say at the same time, [8:35] yeah, we're suing you because we don't like your coverage. [8:37] I mean, do you realize how many credentials the Biden administration revoked when they got in there? [8:47] Do you have any idea the number? If they're getting very nasty, unfavorable things, [8:53] they have the right to revoke your credentials. [8:57] I think the president has every right to defend himself if he's defamed. [9:01] I mean, we have laws in this country that are against that. [9:05] And then you let judges and juries decide who is right and who is wrong. [9:10] Certainly any administration that finds certain outlets to be hostile, uninformed, [9:19] and their objective is to not get the truth out, but it is to find a way to embarrass the administration. [9:26] Well, then they have every right to revoke their credentials. [9:29] I was revoked by the Biden administration. I didn't say a word. [9:32] I never complained. I didn't say a word. Took my hard pass away. [9:36] No problem. I understand it. I get it. I didn't say anything. [9:40] Like, man up. This is the way it works. [9:44] And you know, I never get a fair break from the fake news, which is back there. [9:48] That's a lot of fake news. [9:49] Oh, yeah, yeah. [9:50] Thanks for watching. Leave us a like or a comment to let us know what you thought about anything we covered this week. [10:02] The links to our social media and our newsletter are in the description. [10:05] That's where you can follow us for updates from the show.