Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich Notes ‘Unusual’ Moment When a Reporter Boosted Trump Rhetoric With Personal Story
Fox News’s senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich spoke to anchors Trace Gallagher and Sandra Smith on Tuesday, following the first part of President Donald Trump’s marathon cabinet meeting. Heinrich pointed on one “highly unusual” moment during the Cabinet meeting, in which an Epoch Times reporter told her story about crime in DC to bolster the Trump administration’s narrative.
“Good morning to you guys. We are obviously watching this cabinet meeting. Heard the president reiterate much of what we heard him state yesterday, just about the effort that the administration is taking to crack down on crime and illegal immigration across the country,” Heinrich began, adding:
He said, you know, “We’re willing to go into Chicago, which is in big trouble, but we have a governor who refuses to admit that he has problems.” Seems like he is sticking with his plan of waiting for these state governors to ask for help to send in the National Guard.
We do know that in the 19 states where there are National Guard activations being planned, all of those states have been participating with the administration to bring in those National Guard agents to effectively backfill DHS facilities, ICE facilities, so that more of those agents can be out in the field. Framing it basically as a support pillar to a broader interagency effort that will allow the administration to crack down on crime across the country. You’ve heard him touting the successes that they’ve seen in D.C., which is happening under a little bit of a different legal authority.
This is, you know, under federal jurisdiction in Washington, D.C., so the president has sent out the National Guard to do different work than you’ll be seeing happen in the states that they plan to go out in.
“But notably, you heard from a reporter in the room—I think that was Iris Tao from the Epoch Times—talking about her personal experience. She suffered an attack last year and praised the president for what she, you know, the results that he has brought to this city. Should also note, bit unusual to have a member of the working press corps speaking in support of a policy for the administration she’s covering,” noted Heinrich, who serves on the board of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA). The Trump administration stripped the WHCA of its historic role of assigning reporters to cover the president in February, taking that power for itself.
“But that, of course, is what has come out of the changes that this administration has brought to the White House press pool, where they effectively add folks to the press pool to come into events that they want to speak to. And obviously, the administration saw Iris’s story and wanted to highlight that today. So we heard that from her as well,” reported Heinrich.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
