Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / If the 'most TV-addicted president' doesn't have cameras there, is he even president Baker

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If the 'most TV-addicted president' doesn't have cameras there, is he even president Baker · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining us, MSNOW senior White House reporter Von Hilliard, who
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: is outside the perimeter of the White House, New York
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Times chief White House correspondent and MSNOW contributor Peter Baker,
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  Speaker 1: and senior advisor for the Lincoln Project and Mitt Romney's
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: chief strategist for his 2012 presidential campaign, Stuart Stevens. So, Peter,
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  Speaker 1: is this all just another way to distract the.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, look, you know, you can look at it
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  Speaker 2: that way for sure, right? He's being frustrated on so
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  Speaker 2: many different levels. The judge won't let him put his
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  Speaker 2: name on the Kennedy Center. The war in Iran is
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  Speaker 2: not going well. Obviously, the elections don't look good. The
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  Speaker 2: poll numbers are bad. All the things you cited, And
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  Speaker 2: this is a way of lashing out. Now, is it
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  Speaker 2: strategic or is it just emotional or is it both?
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  Speaker 2: You know, we've had that debate now for 10 years
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  Speaker 2: on so many of these things. But I do think
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  Speaker 2: that it's not wrong to look at in the context
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  Speaker 2: of the moment. And it's a moment when he is
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  Speaker 2: having a hard time finding traction on any of the
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  Speaker 2: things he wants to get accomplished. So having a fight
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  Speaker 2: was one of his favorite foils. The news media always
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  Speaker 2: feels like a good idea.
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  Speaker 3: Yvonne, what has it meant for you covering this White House?
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  Speaker 4: We're not inside the White House right now, and it
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  Speaker 4: means that we're not going to have as a team
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  Speaker 4: daily access to administration officials, cabinet members. Those are our
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  Speaker 4: few instances in which we can actually get the chance
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  Speaker 4: to converse or at least toss a question to and
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  Speaker 4: have a quick interaction. with officials that are engaged directly
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  Speaker 4: with the president.
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  Speaker 3: If you go back to.
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  Speaker 4: His prime time address back in the summer when he
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  Speaker 4: was making his claims of election fraud related to the
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  Speaker 4: 2020 election, that's how I got a quick moment with
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  Speaker 4: John Solomon in which he acknowledged that there was no
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  Speaker 4: evidence that would have suggested that Joe Biden actually lost
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  Speaker 4: the 2020 election. It's moments like that that we are
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  Speaker 4: now prohibited from having the chance to even ask and
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  Speaker 4: be engaged in the question. I will say, literally in
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  Speaker 4: just the last five minutes, Katie, the networks, the news
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  Speaker 4: television crews that do still have access inside of the
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  Speaker 4: White House, they agreed as organizations to not cover the
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  Speaker 4: ribbon-uncutting of the helipad that he just attempted to reveal
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  Speaker 4: to the public. And so the other major news organizations,
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  Speaker 4: they went to editorially cover it but didn't bring their cameras.
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  Speaker 4: And we know how big of a deal The reconstruction
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  Speaker 4: and the renovations to the White House are to Donald
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  Speaker 4: Trump and having those across the national airwaves. But this
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  Speaker 4: afternoon on Fox and tonight on Fox News, there will
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  Speaker 4: be no footage of that ribbon cutting. The only place
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  Speaker 4: that was able to effectively stream in real time this
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  Speaker 4: ribbon cutting of the helipad for Donald Trump was the
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  Speaker 4: White House itself. And our team was just listening as
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  Speaker 4: we were coming on the air to that feed. And
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  Speaker 4: they were not able to capture any audio of what
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  Speaker 4: the president was actually saying. which it's at the heart of,
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  Speaker 4: I think it's important for our audience to understand, it's
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  Speaker 4: the television networks that have put the money and the investment,
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  Speaker 4: including us at MSNOW as subscribers, to the pool to
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  Speaker 4: build out the infrastructure to effectively capture the movements of
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  Speaker 4: the executive branch of the United States. This is a
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  Speaker 4: major decision that has been made by the network pool
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  Speaker 4: to take this stance, understanding that we do have an
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  Speaker 4: obligation to cover the president, but an understanding that it
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  Speaker 4: is not the president who gets to pick and choose,
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  Speaker 4: as our legal team is arguing in the court at
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  Speaker 4: this very moment. They are not the ones to get
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  Speaker 4: to determine who does and does not get to ask
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  Speaker 4: the president questions.
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  Speaker 1: And I think this has been so well covered on
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  Speaker 1: this network and others and throughout the news media, the
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  Speaker 1: just the problems with banning any news outlet from covering
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  Speaker 1: you in the White House because you decide they're unfair.
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  Speaker 1: It's not democratic. It's certainly against democracy. the First Amendment.
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  Speaker 1: But the reason why I want to just dwell down
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  Speaker 1: on the distraction part of this, Peter, and I want
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  Speaker 1: to go back to you one more time. Donald Trump,
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  Speaker 1: as much as he hates the media, loves the media.
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  Speaker 1: He loves attention. He loves cameras. He loves the fights.
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  Speaker 1: He loves the back and forth. He's always thought it
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  Speaker 1: worked for him. So in your experience, How long does
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  Speaker 1: this sort of thing last on his end, especially when
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  Speaker 1: the other news networks are very rightly banding together to
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  Speaker 1: say this will not stand?
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  Speaker 2: That's a great question, Katie. I mean, this is the
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  Speaker 2: most television addicted president we think we've seen in modern times.
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  Speaker 2: And if the most television addicted president in modern times
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  Speaker 2: doesn't have cameras there, you know, is he really president?
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  Speaker 2: Is he really what the kind of president he wants
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  Speaker 2: to be, the kind of president he likes to be?
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  Speaker 2: Television is so inimicable to this president. And his presidency, remember,
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  Speaker 2: he came from reality television, 14 seasons on air. Television
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  Speaker 2: has been his modus operandi in terms of communication along
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  Speaker 2: with social media. Throughout the 10 years, he's been in
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  Speaker 2: the highest level of politics. He calls the television cameras
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  Speaker 2: into the Oval Office at a moment's notice and for
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  Speaker 2: an hour or two hours at a time or at
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  Speaker 2: the helicopter pad or when he's taking off on Air
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  Speaker 2: Force One or so on. He loves television. It's like
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  Speaker 2: oxygen for him. And how long he can go without
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  Speaker 2: the network television cameras is a really good question. Now,
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  Speaker 2: there will be other television there, smaller, less influential, less
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  Speaker 2: important networks that may be, in fact, ideological one way
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  Speaker 2: or the other. But they're not going to be the
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  Speaker 2: big networks that he mostly cares about. And he watches
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  Speaker 2: obsessively himself. So how long can he go with that?
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  Speaker 2: That's a huge tension, right? The tension between his need
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  Speaker 2: for television television and his resistance to wanting to back down.
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  Speaker 2: He may be saved if a judge does issue a
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  Speaker 2: ruling barring him from doing this, because that way then
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  Speaker 2: the television cameras come back in and he can say
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  Speaker 2: he didn't back down.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: The television cameras, though, Stu, so far not helping him
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  Speaker 1: trying to convince the American public that things are going well.
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  Speaker 1: I mentioned a moment ago, 29 percent According to the
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  Speaker 1: American Research Group, they've been tracking both presidencies. This is
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  Speaker 1: the lowest number that they have ever recorded for approval.
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  Speaker 3: Why is it so bad?
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  Speaker 6: Well, I think it's bad because there's nothing good. What
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  Speaker 6: is it that this administration and this government and it's
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  Speaker 6: run by Republicans is doing to make people's lives better?
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  Speaker 6: You know, you've talked about this before, Katie. I thought
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  Speaker 6: dead on. What's the bargain here? between voters and Republican Party.
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  Speaker 6: And in many ways, elections like this are straight-up referendums.
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  Speaker 6: If you think things are going in the right direction,
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  Speaker 6: you should vote for the people in power. It's not complicated.
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  Speaker 6: If you think that they're not, give the other side
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  Speaker 6: a choice. And I suspect that what's happening here is,
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  Speaker 6: you know, Trump is so surrounded by this bubble that
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  Speaker 6: tells him everything is great that he can't understand it.
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  Speaker 3: What do you mean?
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  Speaker 6: This is terrific. It must be the press. Because what
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  Speaker 6: the reality is, all my people tell me is great.
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  Speaker 6: And of course, it's not. And this is why you
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  Speaker 6: see the beginnings of a change in strategy with like J.D.
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  Speaker 6: Vance and even with Hegsett to begin to lay the
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  Speaker 6: framework that, well, OK, things aren't going that great, but
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  Speaker 6: give us another chance. That's the right play to run.
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  Speaker 6: But I just don't think they're going to be able
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  Speaker 6: to execute it because Trump will never go along with it.
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  Speaker 1: The White House just released another statement, which is doubling
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  Speaker 1: down on the press ban.
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  Speaker 3: It says this. Last week, President Donald J.
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  Speaker 1: Trump removed CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House
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  Speaker 1: grounds after years of false reporting. The First Amendment protects
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  Speaker 1: their right to publish. It does not entitle them to
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  Speaker 1: a hard pass, briefing room seat or place in.
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  Speaker 3: The press pool. Access changes are nothing new.
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  Speaker 1: What is new, however, is a sudden claim that it
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  Speaker 1: becomes impossible sacred only when the outlets are friendly to
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  Speaker 1: the radical left. The rule was never every outlet gets in.
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  Speaker 1: It was always our side stays in. I want to
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  Speaker 1: go back to 2017. This is back when Donald Trump
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  Speaker 1: first became president, when he started calling the press not
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  Speaker 1: the enemy of him, but the enemy of the people.
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  Speaker 1: Here is John McCain speaking to Chuck Todd.
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  Speaker 5: We need a free press. We must have it. It's vital.
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  Speaker 5: If you want to preserve, I'm very serious now, if
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  Speaker 5: you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you
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  Speaker 5: have to have a free and many times adversarial press.
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  Speaker 5: And without it, I'm afraid that we would lose so
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  Speaker 5: much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators
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  Speaker 5: get started.
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  Speaker 1: Stu, we are nearly 10 years in. Why do I
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  Speaker 1: not hear another Republican ever saying that?
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  Speaker 6: Well, the people who would say that in the Republican
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  Speaker 6: Party have all been driven from the Republican Party, haven't they?
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  Speaker 6: I mean, Liz Cheney would say this and Mitt Romney
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  Speaker 6: would say this. Kissinger would say this. There's been a
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  Speaker 6: purge of the party, which is what happens in extremist movements,
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  Speaker 6: that if you don't go along with it, you have
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  Speaker 6: to be purged. And it's a complete disavowal of the
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  Speaker 6: concept of what we have thought meant to be America,
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  Speaker 6: that America is a place where people can have dissenting opinions,
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  Speaker 6: where people can disagree, where people can work through, where
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  Speaker 6: compromise is not considered a weakness but a strength, which
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  Speaker 6: really goes to, I think, the fundamental way in which
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  Speaker 6: this Republican Party that I used to belong to and
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  Speaker 6: help promote is trying to change the definition of what
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  Speaker 6: it means to be America. They see being America, J.D.
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  Speaker 6: Vance talks about the heritage Americans. What in the world
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  Speaker 6: is that? They have no sense of this idea of
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  Speaker 6: America as an idea. Stephen Miller says, no, it's not
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  Speaker 6: an idea. It's just about power. These are fundamentally different
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  Speaker 6: views of what is America? What does it mean to
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  Speaker 6: be America? And when you start taking apart that kind
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  Speaker 6: of base that people can agree on and which then
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  Speaker 6: they can disagree on, It really tears at the fabric
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  Speaker 6: of society. And I think that's what's happening here in
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  Speaker 6: a very dangerous way.
• 10:00
  Speaker 7: Hey, it's me, Rachel Maddow. If you like the story
• 10:03
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• 10:13
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• 10:21
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• 10:24
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• 10:25
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• 10:29
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• 10:37
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• 10:39
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