Trump Embarrassed as Fox Cut’s the White House Pool Feed in Solidarity With CNN/MSNOW & Politico

0:00This podcast is supported by Anthropic, the public benefit corporation behind Claude. Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way. Because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at Claude.ai slash Spotify and keep thinking. That's Claude.ai slash Spotify.

0:31Afternoon glare totally ruined my watch party for the big game. That's when my buddy recommended Blinds.com. With custom window treatments made to fit your style, space, and budget, customers who shop at Blinds.com experienced overwhelming satisfaction. Side effects may include a fuller, deeper night's sleep and the sudden urge to host the watch party again. Blinds.com isn't a medication, but it can improve how you feel about your home. Visit Blinds.com to order your free samples today.

1:00Michael Popok:We got some breaking developments about that fight between Donald Trump and the First Amendment and the freedom of the press. As in a sign of solidarity, a group of mainstream media outlets led by Fox News has told the White House that they're going to cut the feed to the White House pool coverage of Donald Trump, not only in the White House, but on the road like at the United Nations. The pool feed, the press pool, is where you have one camera and maybe one reporter because of tight and limited space, and that goes out as a video feed to the other major networks. I don't know if you're going to believe this, but Fox News' Washington bureau chief, who's the head of the pool right now, it rotates around, Brian Bouton, wrote an email, according to Politico, telling the Trump administration that the feed was cut.

1:56And now while Donald Trump is at the United Nations and doing all sorts of crazy things, you know who's covering him?

2:04Michael Popok:Not the pool of the major media networks that are not going to be showing photos and not showing videos. It's the Hearst television station company and Real America Voice. Yeah, I haven't heard of them either. They're currently the last minute pool feed for the White House. This is an assault on the First Amendment. It's coming to a head in a hearing tomorrow at about three o 'clock in front of Judge Kelly. And I think it's fascinating that even Fox News knew this was wrong. It's an assault on the Fourth Estate, and it needs to come to an end. And this sign of solidarity is not the first time.

2:41Michael Popok:In fact, Fox News was involved with it about 20 years ago when the Obama administration wanted to bar Fox News from being in the room when one of their administrators was being interviewed. The other major news entities at that time, ABC, CBS, CNN, joined together to get Fox into the room. And now it looks like Fox is repaying the debt there. I'm Michael Popok. You're on Legal AF. Let's get ready for the big hearing tomorrow. But I think the takeaway, as Judge Kelly decides whether to reinstate the press passes for Politico, MSNOW and CNN, taken away by the Secret Service at the requirement of Donald Trump, I think the big issue here, the bigger issue here is how mainstream media and other media respond and this show of solidarity and if it's going to work.

3:42Michael Popok:Now, in the past Trump administrations, Donald Trump folded. When the other mainstream media outlets got together, this is really before Midas, before Legal AF, before the rise of YouTube, when they got together and said, cut the feed, Trump caved in. The problem now is there are so many different platforms and channels on YouTube. Anybody with an iPhone becomes a cameraman and Trump's probably banking on the fact, well, we'll just use the alternate feed. We'll hook it up with Hearst. They don't care. It's a company controlled by Republicans and owns TV stations and Real America Voice, a right wing platform.

4:20Michael Popok:We'll use them instead. I still think in order to reach the audiences that you want to reach as we run into the midterm election. And if you're looking for the widest coverage of things like Donald Trump goes to the UN or Donald Trump meets with Mayor Mamdami in New York, you probably want a national news feed to be there for it. Now, I understand that the bulk of our audience here on Legal AF and on Midas Touch get their news from YouTube, from us, and count on us to do it. We still get clips and we still get a video feed from mainstream media. We might have a different take on it. We may put it together and package it in a different way.

5:05Michael Popok:We have our own independent voice and commentary saying things that they wouldn't dare. But it doesn't mean that we don't rely on their video, the video evidence, and then we take it from there. So it is important. And that's one place where I will show solidarity, of course, with mainstream media when there's an assault on the First Amendment, the freedom of the press. And you and we need to understand that, you know, as robust of a network and community as Midas Touch and Legal AF, we don't have the resources to have a camera every place it needs to be in order to report on it. But wouldn't we be a lesser organization if we didn't have some of these raw footage but we support what they're doing.

5:53Michael Popok:And now Judge Kelly tomorrow, and I'll have a video up tomorrow. I'm just waiting on, there's a new filing coming in in the next hour or so by the White House, by the Department of Justice, opposing the motion for temporary restraining order brought by MSNOW and CNN and Politico to get their press credentials back. And why? But then, you know, you've got at the same time Donald Trump's trying to do, you know, all sorts of feeds, if you will, and all sorts of attacks on the press. All he's doing is manufacturing new evidence to be used at the hearing that's going to be held tomorrow, which I will cover here on Legal AF.

6:37Michael Popok:Here's a new attack by Donald Trump about the his right. And he's sitting next to, you know, some leader, world leader when he does it. the right he has because mainstream media is undermining national security. You want to know who we think is undermining national security? Donald Trump and threatening to wipe a country off the face of the earth in Iran. Let's play the clip. So, but they said we will not cover Trump. This is something you don't have to know about. You won't have this problem. But, you know, we have a lot of fake news. And I think when news is fake and it's actually dangerous, I think I have a right to clear it out.

7:18How is it, Daniel? Could you say?

7:20Michael Popok:And J.D. Vance, too. J.D. Vance always looks like somebody just woke him up and didn't properly prepare him for the interview. Because he always finds a way to create a straw man. Like, this is like a telephone game. This is not the issue that's in court tomorrow. This is the, well, it's just about access. It's about, you know, they can still report on the White House, but they can't do it from an office here. No, banning the correspondents from the room where it happens and banning them from being able to do their reporting in real time for the White House does undermine their First Amendment right and is done in retaliation for their viewpoint.

7:59Michael Popok:Here's J.D. Vance and his gibberish. Play the clip. What do you guys got? Vice President, CNN, MSN, Politico are now suing over the ban. Do you think it's appropriate for the president to be banning media outlets just because he doesn't like what they report? Well, I take some issue with the premise. So he's not banning media outlets. What he's doing is saying, we're not going to give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda. We have to remember, those three outlets account. About 92 % of the stories that they have on the president of the United States, on the administration, are negative.

8:29That's not representative of the American people. It's not representative of public opinion. So if you're going to engage in what is effectively far-left propaganda, why would a Republican White House give you special access? Sir, you've talked a lot about free speech over the years. How is this not an attack on free speech? Well, they can still report on the Trump White House. They can still get the public reports. They can still, of course, talk to people in the administration and outside the administration. What the president has said is we're not going to give you special access inside the White House.

8:56The way that I think about it is if you go back to the Biden administration or the Obama administration, compare, let's say, Politico to Breitbart.

9:03Michael Popok:See, there is an example. Somebody caught that clip. I'm able to use it, analyze it, put it together here in our own neat package without blowing smoke or sunshine. So while you're here on Legal AF, take a minute, hit that free subscribe button. Help us to continue to grow our pro-democracy channel. Tomorrow, programming note, my first video of the morning is going to give you the overview of what's at stake during the hearing later tomorrow at about 3.30 p.m. Eastern time, which I'll be covering in front of Judge Kelly, brought by CNN, MSNOW, and Politico. It's the temporary restraining order hearing, and I'll be there for it to be able to report.

9:41Michael Popok:My second interview tomorrow is an interview I just completed with Katie Fang, and to talk about all of her great success and where we go from there in her attempt to try to get the Epstein files from the Trump administration and the Department of Justice. You're not going to want to miss my exclusive briefing with Katie Fang and her case about the Epstein survivors up number two tomorrow on Legal AF YouTube channel. In the meantime, I'm Michael Popak. Join us and hit that free subscribe button here. Until my next report, this is Michael.

10:28Michael Popok: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.