Karine Jean-Pierre Decries Trump Team Taking Control of Press Pool: ‘What We’re Looking At Is State TV!’
Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre likened President Donald Trump’s actions against the media since taking office to what one would typically see in countries like North Korea and Russia.
Jean-Pierre joined The View Tuesday for her post-White House interview, and she tore into what she sees as “state-TV”-style actions coming out of the briefing room she used to occupy, including the White House wrestling control of the press pool selection from the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) and banning the Associated Press from covering events over the outlet’s refusal to use the Trump-approved name “Gulf of America.”
Jean-Pierre argued that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s bombshell announcement that the White House team itself would select the rotation of the press pool for events — something the WHCA condemned — is similar to the control authoritarian governments like that of North Korea put on their media.
She said:
“If you look at the Associated Press, they are the oldest wire in the press briefing room. And you think about journalists, you think about the reason they’re in the press briefing room, you think about the reason they’re in the pool, it’s called a protective pool, there are 13 members of the pool — I’m trying not to get too wonky here — and their job is to provide unbiased information to the American people because the American people deserve that. And when the White House press team decides to step in and override the White House Correspondents’ Association, who — they have the job of doing that, then what we’re looking at is state TV. What we’re looking at is what Russia is doing. What we’re looking at is what North Korea is doing. And we are doing — they are attacking the fiber of the freedom of the press, they are destroying it because they want to be covered in a friendly way.”
Jean-Pierre added that the briefings are aired “globally” and send serious messages to the rest of the world about this country and its respect for press freedom.
“Other countries are wondering, what are we saying as the United States? What is it that we want to do? And it is an exercise of democracy,” she said. “It is the cornerstone of democracy, the freedom of the press. It is the Fourth Estate and we are supposed to be leading that as the most powerful country in the world.”
Watch above via ABC.
