‘The FCC Has No Authority to Punish Journalists’
President Trump has learned that Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr may be his most supple sycophant.
In a Truth Social post this week, Trump took aim at NBC anchor Kristen Welker for reporting, accurately, over the weekend that Trump has seen some “mixed results” with his Republican candidate endorsements this primary cycle. “He, of course, has endorsed a slate of candidates in the primaries,” Welker said. “He’s had some mixed results, but most recently, his pick of Sen. Darline Graham, of course, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, was successful in her primary battle, so now she takes on Dr. Annie Andrews in South Carolina.”
Her reporting was true: Some of the candidates that Trump has endorsed this primary season have not won their primaries, such as GOP gubernatorial candidates Burt Jones in Georgia, Mike Lindell in Minnesota and Randy Feenstra in Iowa. Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) also lost his reelection campaign with Trump’s backing, though Trump later said he encouraged the Republican to drop out as he faced credible allegations of sexual misconduct. There was also this bizarre situation in Michigan where the guy Trump backed for Congress lost to another candidate who had already dropped out of the race and who, TPM’s Hunter Walker reported last week, narrated his visit to D.C. on Jan. 6 from a Twitter account associated with a salsa company he owns (yes, there’s a lot going on there).
Anyway, Trump unleashed on Welker online shortly after her remarks aired.
“How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Results are attached. Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment. Unfortunately, she is not the only one,” he said.
Trump has singled out Welker and other journalists for years as enemies of the people for reporting information accurately, but in a way that does not line up with Trump’s version of events, his conspiracy theories or his delusions. In June, Trump stormed out of an interview with Welker when she pressed him to better explain his lies about rampant and widespread election fraud. His fixation with Welker and his rhetoric about journalists, vilifying them as agents of disinfo or Democratic operatives, is not new. Trump has repeatedly put journalists in danger throughout his political career and convinced his base of supporters that they were the “enemy of the people” during his campaign and first term.
What is different now is that he has arguably his most steadfast toady installed at the helm of the FCC. I’ve written about Brendan Carr quite a bit the past two years as he abuses his authority as FCC chair to threaten major broadcasters’ licenses to operate due to things said or reported on their airwaves that Trump doesn’t like. ABC and the Walt Disney Co., its corporate parent, recently sued the FCC over Carr’s blatant attempts to trample it’s freedom of speech, specifically related to the broadcast license renewal investigations that Carr has been conducting in recent months.
While Carr has not yet weighed in on Trump’s directive that he go after Welker or NBC News, it is surely a matter of time, if we know anything about how Carr operates. The sole Democratic commissioner at the FCC has consistently called out Carr’s abuses throughout Trump’s second term, often correcting the record about what the FCC chief is actually allowed to do as he serves as a mouthpiece for Trump’s war on the media.
House GOP Temporarily and Implicitly Acknowledges Trump’s Assault on Separation of Powers
In August, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) — who is facing the fight of her political life in a race that could help determine control of the Senate in November — crafted a continuing resolution to keep the government open that passed the Senate with bipartisan support last month, with a 90-6 vote. As the Senate’s top appropriators, the legislation they wrote will fund federal agencies through December and stave off a government shutdown, which, apparently, most members wanted to avoid in the run-up to the midterms.
The two also slipped a measure into the continuing resolution that will temporarily block the White House from implementing a new Office of Management and Budget proposal, designed to give political appointees in the executive branch more power over who can receive discretionary grants from the federal government. It’s something that Collins has been vocally opposed to for weeks and that also, conveniently or not, gives her some street cred back home among voters who want to see her stand up to the Trump administration.
The OMB rule is just one of several ways this executive branch has tried to assert power over congressionally appropriated spending, violating the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution. And Republicans in this Congress, particularly House Republicans, have been more than happy to cede their authority to the White House, as my colleague Emine Yücel has been reporting for TPM.
Despite rumblings of some drama, the stopgap funding bill — with the provision blocking the OMB grant proposal — passed the House this afternoon in a 370-48 vote, with just 19 Republicans voting against the measure, some of whom were opposed to temporarily blocking the grant funding rule. Trump is expected to sign the legislation to avoid a midterms shutdown — and therefore take the minor, and short-term, slap on the wrist from some Republicans in Congress.
Mullin Keeps Toeing the ICE-at-the-Polls Line
My colleagues John Light and Josh Kovensky have pointed out that CNN‘s report on the Department of Homeland Security’s investigative agency, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), focusing its resources on investigating noncitizen voting beginning today is, in itself, a version of the administration sending ICE to the polls. It involves HSI — housed within ICE — in policing the midterms. The operation, per CNN, is set to end in October. What comes after is unclear.
The question of whether DHS may act on MAGA influencers’ calls for the department to send federal immigration officers to polling places is one that administration officials have been trying to sidestep for months. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has dodged when asked about the matter, in part, it seems, because it is illegal for federal armed officers to be present at polling places.
Speaking to reporters in New York City on Tuesday, one of the places that will reportedly be targeted by the department’s “voter fraud surge,” Mullin essentially confirmed that ICE officers would be sent to polling places if they had a warrant for the arrest of an undocumented person there.
“ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places. We’re there to enforce specific threats,” he said.
“The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” he continued. “ICE’s job is immigration, customs enforcement. That’s their job … if we’re serving a warrant we will be where we need to be.”
Here’s What Else You Should Read From TPM Today
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Yesterday’s Top Story
What I’m Reading
College student steps into highway traffic, is killed after losing TPS
But … but … I thought that was considered a qualification, a feature. Now it’s disqualifying, a bug in the ointment?
What has happened to the loud and proud Guardians Of Pedophiles?
Two plus more years of this f_ckin’ sh_t? I think not. The mid-terms must terminate this delusional psychopath.
tiowally says:
September 1, 2026
But … but … I thought that was considered a qualification, a feature. Now it’s disqualifying, a bug in the ointment?
What has happened to the loud and proud Guardians Of Pedophiles?
… … … … … …
“The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” he continued. “ICE’s job is immigration, customs enforcement. That’s their job … if we’re serving a warrant we will be where we need to be.”
“Because my astrologer said that, this year, Wednesdays are inauspicious times for me to begin life-changing undertakings, which are better started on Tuesdays.”
Mullet is a moron.
That is all.