ABC News host Jonathan Karl has brutally humiliated a top Republican live on air, and then again on social media using Elon Musk’s fact-checking tool on X.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise appeared on Sunday’s This Week where Karl immediately asked him if he “supported” Donald Trump banning news organizations from the White House “because he doesn’t like what they’re reporting.”
The 80-year-old president had a tantrum on Friday after aide Natalie Harp, 35, played him unflattering clips from MS NOW. Hours later, he posted on Truth Social that MS NOW, CNN, and Politico were all banned from the White House “effective immediately.”
When reporters from the organizations arrived for work at the White House on Saturday they were denied entry and had their press passes revoked.
Scalise, 60, first attempted to dodge the question and praise his boss, saying, “I don’t think we’ve had a president that’s been more open to the press.” He added that before Trump will sign a bill, “everybody gets to not only take pictures, but ask questions.”
The Republican then fell back on the trusted MAGA defense of blaming former President Joe Biden, saying he had “removed the press credentials from over 400 different agencies.”
Scalise then claimed Trump had “brought a lot of those [reporters] back in...he wants a free and fair press.” He added Trump was a “very open president.”
Karl then immediately corrected Scalise, saying, “First of all, it’s actually not true about Biden,” explaining that the 400 individual reporters, not agencies, who lost their media credentials did not reapply for them. “There was only one that was actually denied a credential,” Karl said. “And all of those who didn’t reapply were allowed to come in.”
Scalise can be heard saying, “They were removed.” Karl responded, “They were not banned from the White House. That did not happen.”
The ABC host agreed with Scalise that Trump had “taken a lot of questions from reporters,” but again asked him if he supported CNN, MS NOW and Politico being banned from the White House after Trump’s Truth Social post and whether that action violated the First Amendment.
“Well, I don’t know why he did it, I don’t know what the background is,” Scalise said.
He then claimed he had “never seen” Trump turn down a question from anybody, and that sometimes he gets “very hostile questions” and he “sits there and takes them all.”
Karl replied, “OK, well, I guess he’s not going to be taking questions, at least from those three news organizations, because they are banned from the White House.”
While they switched the discussion on TV to the midterms, the pair then took their argument off-line and onto social media.
The House leader posted on X later on Sunday, “This morning, ABC tried to claim the Biden White House didn’t cut off press access for over 400 journalists. The facts say otherwise...” adding just the headline of a Fox News article from August 2023.
Beyond the headline, the actual story points out that under the Biden administration, the eligibility for reporters getting permanent passes was changed. That included having a full-time role in news media and accessing the White House at least once in the last six months in order to keep the pass.
Karl asked Musk’s AI fact-checking bot Grok to verify Scalise’s claims. Grok pointed out, “In 2023 the Biden White House tightened hard-pass rules requiring annual renewal, full-time news employment, a DC address, and recent campus access. Hard passes fell from 1,417 to 975 (about 442 fewer). Most holders simply did not reapply; only one application was denied. Day passes stayed available, so access was not barred. It affected individual reporters, not `agencies’.”
Karl then doubled down on the fact only one application was denied and nobody was banned.
“Yes,” Grok replied. “Only one hard-pass application was denied. The roughly 442 drop came almost entirely from holders who did not reapply under the tightened 2023 rules. Those without hard passes could still request day passes, which remained available. No one was banned from White House access.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
