SiriusXM podcaster Megyn Kelly raised concerns about President Donald Trump’s decision to seize control of the the White House press pool, warning that White House staffers were on ‘dangerous ground.’
‘I will say for the record, I don’t know how I feel about the White House saying, we’re now going to decide who’s in pool,’ Kelly said in her daily podcast show with radio host Buck Sexton.
Kelly said she approved the idea of opening up White House access to more reporters but criticized their decision to remove reporters from the pool rotation.
‘It’s not the same as saying we’re going to bring in new voices into the press briefing room, I love all that, but I actually happen to believe the media should decide who is in pool.’
She repeated that journalists, not White House staff, should make decisions about the access rotations.
‘I’m not a knee jerk defender of the press but i’m not a knee jerk defender of the president either and there is an important role for an independent press in this country,’ she said.
Kelly noted that covering the White House was a complicated process to make sure that the president’s moves were covered in a fair, independent way.
She also recalled covering the president when she worked for Fox News, noting the professionalism and intricacies of the job.
Megyn Kelly voiced her concerns about the White House seizing control of the press pool rotation
‘Like you can’t fuck around with that. You need true pros who have got a lot of experience, you know, setting up a shot, being ready for breaking news,’ Kelly said. ‘I speak only from the TV realm because that’s the one I know. I got questions about this before I really endorse it or criticize it.’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Tuesday that the White House would control the pool rotation to make sure that more reporters from different outlets had access to the president.
On Wednesday, the White House pushed out three reporters from the pool to make room for three different reporters, one from Axios, one from The Blaze, and a separate television crew from Newsmax.
Leavitt explained why she decided to blow up the rotation of journalists controlled by the White House Correspondents Association during an interview on the Ruthless podcast.
‘We want more voices in the room not less,’ she said.
‘The legacy media will still be there as we said, but there are many other people in this country, across the country who deserve a seat,’ she added.
Political commentator and journalist Megyn Kelly speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference
Karoline Leavitt explains her decision on the Ruthless podcast
Kelly criticized the press for their coverage of Trump, but indicated she was still a little concerned about the White House controlling access to the president.
‘I realize the press has lost its mind, but it’s written right into the Bill of Rights that yeah, a free press is one of our most fundamental values, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the White House saying, “This is who will cover me. This is who I will allow to cover me at all,”‘ she said.
Sexton noted the press was insufferably biased, but Kelly warned that the White House decision to take control of the process was a bad move.
‘Listen, this White House, they haven’t thrown out all left-wing media. It’s almost still the pools that they want, dominant, left-wing media,’ Kelly said. ‘I’m just saying the principle of it, if we’re going to discuss the principle of it, we’re on dangerous ground here.’
