New Meet The Press moderator Kristen Welker not only allowed Trump to lie, but also gave him the platform to endanger national security.
The dangerous platform that meets the press and Kristen Welker gave Trump
It didn’t have to be this way. Kristen Welker could have contradicted Trump with the facts, stood up for democracy and chosen to treat Trump as a former president who incited an insurrection, staged a coup against the United States and is trying to return to the presidency to avoid prison avoid.
Instead, Welker treated Trump as a typical political candidate who was not charged with crimes against the nation.
Below you will find a selection of clips. Normally I would transcribe the video, but Trump’s lies are so dangerous that publishing them would only spread them.
Welker allowed the former president who instigated the 1/6 attack to blame former Speaker Pelosi for the attack:
Trump thinks Republicans can win on abortion if they just find the right number of weeks for a federal ban:
The big moment of Trump accepting Putin’s endorsement for the 2024 elections:
Kristen Welker and Meet The Press endangered national security by giving Trump an unchecked platform
What Welker and Meet The Press did was worse than access to journalism. You could argue that the interview was worse than normalizing Trump and not pushing back on his lies.
Welker and Meet The Press allowed Trump to justify an attempted coup against the United States, appeal to America’s enemies like Russia, and make the country less safe.
The Meet The Press interview was like interviewing a terrorist and having him use the platform as a recruitment tool.
Trump is not a regular presidential candidate. He faces 91 crimes, many related to an attempted coup and the destruction of democracy.
You could argue that it is important for the nation to be reminded of who and what Trump is, but that education process cannot happen if people like Kristen Welker choose not to push back and uphold their obligation to truth as journalists.
Kristen Welker’s Trump interview was a textbook example of how NOT to interview an authoritarian threat to democracy.
The interview was an embarrassment.
Trump’s method is to demand that mainstream journalists agree to criteria before he will interview them. Welker and Meet The Press appear to have struck some sort of deal, as the idea that they would allow Trump to jeopardize national security through a potential boost in ratings for debut episodes is voluntarily too chilling to fathom.
The media is failing and endangering the democracy on which they depend by treating Trump’s national security threat as just another candidate.