President Donald Trump on Sunday launched a fresh attack against a broadcast network over protected speech on a news program, calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch an investigation against NBC News moderator Kristen Welker over comments she made on a local television station.
During an appearance on WRC-TV (Channel 4) in Washington, D.C., Welker said the president had endorsed “a slate of candidates in the primaries” and “had some mixed results.” She cited Darline Graham’s South Carolina Senate primary win as a recent successful Trump endorsement.
Trump disputed the characterization in a post on Truth Social, calling Welker the “Unpopular ‘Hostess’” of “Meet the Press” and referring to the program as “Meet the Fake Press.” He said his recent endorsement record stood at 100 percent in U.S. Senate primaries and 98 percent in U.S. House primaries.
“Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment,” Trump wrote. “Unfortunately, she is not the only one.”
NBC News defended Welker in a statement.
“Kristen is one of the best in the business and we stand by her,” an NBC News spokesperson said.
The FCC licenses individual broadcast stations, not national networks or journalists. But under the agency’s chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed by Trump last year, the FCC has targeted local TV stations for alleged malfeasance committed by their co-owned broadcast networks.
Earlier this year, the FCC asked the Walt Disney Company’s ABC to renew eight of its local TV broadcast licenses much earlier than expected following criticism of programming aired on its daytime talk show “The View.” The show airs on the eight ABC-owned stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham, Houston and Fresno.
In this case, the Welker interviewed on a local television station, though on a clear and conspicuous news program, raising questions about whether the FCC has the ability to policy that type of broadcast.
The FCC’s own published policy also says it “cannot prevent the broadcast of any particular point of view,” and its news distortion standard generally requires evidence that a broadcaster deliberately intended to mislead viewers, not merely that a statement was disputed or inaccurate.
Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the Commission, criticized Trump’s post.
“The FCC has no authority to punish journalists this administration doesn’t like,” Gomez wrote on X. “These threats to press freedom are dangerous. They undermine the foundation of our democracy, and they have no place in it.”
The president’s criticism of Welker focused on media coverage of his influence in Republican primaries. A Fox News endorsement tracker cited by one source found Trump-backed candidates had won all 24 Republican Senate primaries in which he endorsed and 214 of 218 House primaries. It also found 16 of his 21 gubernatorial picks had won, while five lost.
Trump argued his record was being unfairly described by news outlets.
“Their new weapon is to say that my 99% SUCCESS Rate on Endorsements, 100% on Senatorial Endorsements… is either a mixed result, or not very good,” Trump wrote.
Trump ended his post by appealing directly to Carr and the FCC, saying he hoped the Commission would take what he called a “Threat to our Country” seriously. It wasn’t clear how the agency will respond.
