In a funny moment captured live on air, CNN’s Dana Bash was so embarrassed by one of Trump’s jibes at the controversial news company that she refused to read the joke. During an ongoing debate over defunding PBS and NPR, the president issued a statement in which he said that these media outlets were “CNN & MSDNC put together.”
For context, Trump has made several statements criticizing NPR and PBS, prompting widespread backlash from the leaders of each outlet. The president has blamed the outlets for both their egregious political bias and for wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
In any case, Bash read out a quote from the president but was so triggered that she was unable to finish Trump’s thought. She said, “…And he wrote, ‘it’s very important that all Republicans adhere to my rescissions bill, and in particular, defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is worse than…’…. I’m not even going to read that.”
Taken in context, President Trump was trying to communicate to Republicans the importance of defending the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). He said, “It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together. Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.”
As we reported, this is far from the first time the president has criticized the CPB, such as when reporters asked him about the future of PBS and NPR, he quipped, “We’re well covered. Look at all the people that we have here today. We’re well covered, and we don’t need it. And it’s a waste of money, especially. I don’t even know what DOGE’s recommendation is.”
The president continued his remarks and signaled that he may soon defund these far-left rags. He added, “I assume their recommendation is to close them up. Well, after they hear all the testimony, I think they’re going to make a decision relatively sooner than later. But we’ll see what that turns out. I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t because they have found so much waste, fraud, and abuse.”
While many Republicans understand that defunding the CPB is vital to the America First agenda, some RINOs such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have been opposing the change at every turn. She whined, “We’re lawmakers. We should be legislating. What we’re getting now is a direction from the White House and being told, ‘This is the priority, we want you to execute on it, we’ll be back with you with another round.’ I don’t accept that.”
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As you can imagine, Democrats have cynically opposed the cost-saving measure. For instance, Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) theatrically complained, “Make no mistake, without public broadcasting, we would have seen more lives lost in Helene and, as we enter another hurricane season, I worry how these cuts will harm our ability to keep people safe.”