Blanche Loses Control on National TV and Claims a Free Press Is a “Privilege” Not a “Right”

0:00Michael Popok:Fresh off another eye-popping performance on Sunday morning talk shows, we have yet another series of examples of Todd Blanche, the Attorney General, forgetting on purpose what job he was confirmed to serve. He's not the chief propagandist for Donald Trump. He's not the media strategist for his midterms. He's not the press secretary. He is supposed to be the chief legal officer in America. And once again, in the backdrop of Donald Trump spending taxpayer dollars, taxpayer dollars to run ads about himself, campaign ads about himself. and a fact that a federal judge who is a Republican and a Trump-appointed judge ordered the Trump administration to get CNN, MSNOW, and Politico and get them back their press credentials, get them back into the White House, and the Trump administration in front of the Chinese communists banning and blocking them all over again.

1:05Michael Popok:Todd Blanche had the temerity. He had the balls to look the American people in the eye and say that the press and their coverage of the White House is a privilege, not a right. In his version of the Constitution, apparently, the First Amendment has fell out. He also says that, and he gets very angry, so angry, Mr. Blanche, why are you so angry when you're questioned at length about your position about the First Amendment? And you say, well, one example of CNN? I have many examples of CNN violating the national security. Really? Because Judge Kelly, when you had the moment when your Department of Justice went into court, you know, that wood paneling room with a judge up on a bench wearing a black robe where you have to we have to present evidence through the evidence code in order to prevail.

2:02Michael Popok:Well, in there, there was no evidence that was presented to the judge that this was about national security. And all the evidence that was presented to the judge was this was a knee-jerk reaction to ban and block the free press because Donald Trump got angry at this coverage, the negative coverage. and Tom Blanche has the balls to go on Sunday morning talk shows and get all hot under the collar as he attacks the free press. Again, for those tuning in late to our democracy, this is the Attorney General of the United States. I'm about to show you some clips and bring the receipts here on Legal AF to kick off Monday morning now that we've absorbed the weekend.

2:49Michael Popok:I'm Michael Popak. Take a minute. you're already here with us. Join us. Hit the free subscribe button. All right. We wake up to an ad campaign by Donald Trump with ominous tones and black and white video marching down a hallway talking about how they're going to rout the Marxists, the socialists, the communists that hate our country and the fake news. And this is what they want to put up now while they're battling it out with Judge Kelly about their abuse of free press and the First Amendment. Let's play just a short clip of Donald Trump in action. And I want to remind you, he is spending your and my taxpayer dollars instead of spending a dime to help out at the grocery store, at the gas pump, at the doctor's office for people with Medicare and Medicaid, or to help people enroll in health insurance.

3:47Michael Popok:Instead, this is how he chooses to spend your money while he flies over the Tennessee, the Tennessee-Texas game, again, blowing jet fuel out the back that you're in my checkbook. Play the clip. We will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America. America will never be a communist country. love me

4:16love me love me love me love me love me love me

4:32Michael Popok:now Judge Kelly gave them 14 days now down 10 days to get their act together he blocked the directive by Donald Trump to take away the hard passes, the press passes for those that report to work at the White House. Donald Trump has interpreted that as, oh, I can screw the media on Air Force One. Oh, I can block them from the Chinese state dinner because it's in a tent. It's not in the White House. Now, I am waiting and I'm assuming later today, when I wake up, there's going to be a new motion filed by the three media outlets. They have one lawyer, one law firm, Ted Boutros at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, informing the judge of all the violations of his order in spirit and in letter since he entered his temporary restraining order.

5:25Michael Popok:Now, they quizzed Todd Blanche about the temporary restraining order. And the fact that the judge, because we covered it here on Legal AF, you know this. Judge Kelly said, there is no evidence that was presented to me in this hearing from the government side that indicates this is about national security and leaks of national security. And that's what his order said. In fact, here's a compilation of Donald Trump attacking the media, not once mentioning national security. Play the clip.

6:01It's not the question that I mind. It's your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. I didn't say that. You said that. I didn't say that. This is ABC fake news. You are the worst reporter. CNN has no ratings because of people like you. You know, she's a young woman. I don't think I've ever seen you smile. I've known you for 10 years. I don't think I've ever seen a smile on your face. You know why you're not smiling? Because you know you're not telling the truth. I had a total military victory. But the fake news, guys like you write incorrectly. You're a fake guy. Guys like you write about it incorrectly.

6:38We had a total military victory. In a rare move, NBC and ABC fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech. They knew what it was about because of the fact that they don't like the topic, because they know how corrupt our system is and they don't want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going.

7:04Michael Popok:Todd Blanche was asked about it, and he gave a poor performance, eye-rolling performance for somebody in the field like me, because he said, it's only a temporary restraining order. Judge doesn't have the full record yet. You didn't present a record to the judge. Sure, there's going to be a full new briefing on preliminary injunction to take the temporary restraining order up a notch, but you didn't have any evidence when you needed it for the TRO. Why do you think you're going to get any evidence now? So here's a clip of him pushing back saying, oh, it's not right for me to talk about the case, but let me talk about the case.

7:40Michael Popok:Play the clip. Clearly think you had a strong case, but the temporary restraining order was granted. The judge was skeptical of the argument the department made in court filings to defend this ban on the grounds of national security. He wrote, for one thing, nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of plaintiffs' hard passes was motivated by national security concerns. Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was banning plaintiffs from the White House. Instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of plaintiffs' reporting.

8:17The president said nothing about national security when he announced this ban. And clearly you are very interested in the fact of what the press says and how they say it. Well, I'm not going to get into what the judge says. That litigation is ongoing. But our position has been clear from the beginning. What they say is exactly the issue when it comes to national security. I mean, anybody, there can't be a disagreement.

8:44Michael Popok:Now he's battling it out. The problem is that when other members of the media like Caitlin Collins is pushing up against these talking points, these propaganda points of the government to Mike Waltz, the UN ambassador, who used to be the national security advisor, until he screwed up his WhatsApp grouping and added the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine to a high-level national security WhatsApp direct messaging about a war with the Houthis and got kicked to the UN, when Caitlin Collins reminded him, I know the government, the administration seems to be very upset that we reported on dwindling munitions in the war against Iran, that we're running out of weapons and running out of ammunition and munitions.

9:40She reminded him that that was in the inspector general's report for the Pentagon that was publicly released.

9:46Michael Popok:What was the free media, free press supposed to do? Ignore it. Here's her clip of Caitlin Collins with Mike Waltz. Obviously, the president is meeting with a lot of world leaders tomorrow. How do you think those world leaders see the president's ban of three outlets that are covering him because he doesn't like their coverage? We have a First Amendment, your right to publish, your right for free speech. But what you don't have an inherent right to is to have access to any government institution that you want. In particular, Caitlin, the corrections that go on, the false reporting, the anonymous sources are a real disservice, I think, to the American people.

10:26I mean, what's the message to world leaders if he's banning coverage because he doesn't like what the reporters are reporting? I think the message to world leaders is we need an open, free, and fair, and objective press corps. And that's not what we're seeing right now. How do we have an open and free and fair press corps if he's saying, well, this outlet I don't like, so they can't come into the Oval Office, but other outlets can still go away. You just ignored what I just said. You don't have an inherent right to any government facility that you want, whether it's Langley or the White House.

10:53And that has been determined by multiple Supreme Court cases, the 60s, 70s, and recently as a few years ago. That's an important distinction. The case they're referencing found that reporters don't have carte blanche access to everything, but you can't just ban outlets based on their viewpoint or their reporting. He's not saying no reporters can come in the Oval Office. He's not saying don't go out and report. We're talking right now. I mean, we're talking right now. I'd hope we talked about the reforms that we're going to do at the United Nations, an important international institution. But if we want to spend the entire time talking about this, fine.

11:25We can just talk about Iran and Russia. What we haven't talked is this institution that we're actually trying to reform that many people thought he'd walk away from. We haven't talked about the billion dollars of cuts that we've imposed here that the American people are going to benefit from, the 3 ,000 employees, the U.N. bureaucrats that they're now firing, the 25 percent of the peacekeepers. I'm standing here talking to CNN and you just referenced when I was on CNN on Sunday morning. That is very different than you have access to any government institution that you want.

11:59Michael Popok:And then back to Todd Blanch. Todd Blanch gets all, you can always tell, he's got to tell. When he's lying, when he's doing things that he's uncomfortable with, but is forced to do it, like go out and be the top propagandist and shill for the Trump administration, he gets angry, like this fake anger. I have a two-year-old who sometimes does like a fank angry, and I'll say to my daughter, are you really angry? She'll say, no, daddy. It's funny. It's funny when you're two. It's not funny when you're the attorney general of the United States. Play the clip. Give us an example. I mean, there was one example where the press had reported something.

12:40A White House official said on background. Give you an example of when CNN, I'm sorry, wait, give you an example of when CNN doesn't report accurately? You cannot be asking me that. They don't even disagree. There's not even a real dispute that the information coming out of CNN and some of these other networks is wholly and completely almost almost 100 percent. The judge decided this was not based on national security. So what do you think. The judge issued a temporary the judge issued a temporary order. It's not final. The litigation is ongoing and I'm not going to talk about the specifics of what the judge said.

13:13That wouldn't be right. What I'm talking about is the government's position and what the Department of Justice said in court which is the same thing that President Trump has said repeatedly. which is at some point, at some point, the complete misinformation and the inaccuracy and the one-sided news out of certain organizations does become a national security issue. And it's not right for the people of the United States to have to put up with it. Are you so angry, Todd Blanchard?

13:38Michael Popok:You're an angry man. And that doesn't lead to making good decisions when you're an angry man. And though the position of the White House, that covering the White House is a privilege, not a right, is not true, because we have a First Amendment, something at least the judge in the case understands. Here's Todd Blanche talking about entitlement versus right. And really the unfortunate and sad thing here is that after years and years and years of one-sided media coverage of the president from certain outlets, the president finally said, it's not fair to the American people that this is happening and did something about it.

14:21There's still obviously litigation going on, but the important thing, Martha, is to know that being in the White House is a privilege. It's not a right. So here's an example of the Trump administration and its Department of Justice just living in the upside down world and trying to take us with him.

14:41Michael Popok:But we're not going to let him. I don't think Judge Kelly is going to let him. I think Judge Kelly is going to make the temporary restraining order a preliminary injunction. It's going to make sure that under either the First Amendment, finding viewpoint-based discrimination, which he avoided, making that determination, that Donald Trump went after these reporters and these news media agencies and entities because of their reporting. We know it. You listen to Todd Blanche. All he talks about is negative reporting can become a national security risk. What? Donald Trump is a national security risk.

15:15Michael Popok:How he's conducting himself with China, with Russia, with Iran, with our global allies, if we have any left. How he's treating Canada and Mexico. How he's treating the European Union and NATO. Those are national security risks. The press reporting on it and being negative about it, that's not a national security risk. That's the First Amendment in its finest. So we're going to continue to follow it all right here on Legal AF. as we watch Judge Kelly move it from temporary restraining order up to preliminary injunction, no doubt, within the next about 10 days. Then it'll go up to the D.C. Court of Appeals.

15:53Michael Popok:Then it'll go up to the United States Supreme Court. A first time freedom of the press case going up to the United States Supreme Court like this in about 30 or 40 years. But it's time. And I think even this right wing Supreme Court supports free press against an out of control presidency, even one headed by Donald Trump. We will find out. You will find out. Stay close to the story. Stay close to Legal AF. Hit the free subscribe button now. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack.

16:34Michael Popok:You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, Wait for it. Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.