CSPAN - Washington Journal Robert Bluey
Aired: 2026-05-06
Duration: 13:45


=== Politicians Control Reporter Access (05:43) ===

[00:00:00]  Consider steps to limit potential interference in the 2026 midterm elections, focusing on legal challenges, state-level protective legislation, and contingency planning by local election officials.
[00:00:11]  Hosted by the Hill Center here in Washington, you can watch it live at 7 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN, C-SPAN now, our free mobile app, and online at C-SPAN.org.
[00:00:23]  Welcome back.
[00:00:24]  We are joined now by Robert Blewy.
[00:00:26]  He is president and executive editor of the Daily Signal.
[00:00:29]  Rob, welcome to the program.
[00:00:30]  Thanks.
[00:00:30]  It's great to be here today.
[00:00:32]  So tell us about the Daily Signal and what you focus on and how it came about.
[00:00:37]  Absolutely.
[00:00:37]  Well, the Daily Signal focuses on not only covering the institutions here in Washington, D.C., but increasingly state capitals where we've expanded with a state news network.
[00:00:47]  We aim to focus on the policy debates, primarily those issues that are animating public conversations, much like you do here at C-SPAN.
[00:00:56]  The Daily Signal was founded in 2014 by the Heritage Foundation, a think tank, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
[00:01:02]  And there was a frustration at the time, not only I think with conservatives broadly, but specifically at Heritage, that too much of the media coverage ignored some of those big issues like the national debt you were just talking about, right?
[00:01:14]  There are so many other topics that tend to dominate the news cycle that those issues and debates that happen in places like Congress and the White House don't necessarily get all the attention they deserve.
[00:01:23]  So Heritage created a news organization to focus on those policy issues.
[00:01:27]  We've built a team of reporters and commentators to do exactly that.
[00:01:31]  And so we're available at dailysignal.com or across any social media platform or YouTube to get our videos.
[00:01:36]  And now are you still associated with the Heritage Foundation or are you separate?
[00:01:41]  We are not.
[00:01:41]  And it's interesting pertinent to the topic that we're discussing today.
[00:01:44]  In 2023, President Joe Biden and his White House changed some of the rules for what it are required, the requirements to have a press credential at the White House.
[00:01:54]  And Fred Lucas, who was our White House correspondent at the time, had served in that position under President Obama and President Trump's first term, found himself being kicked out of the White House.
[00:02:05]  And so we began the process shortly thereafter about spinning off and becoming our own independent entity separate from Heritage because what we heard consistently, not only from the congressional press galleries, but also the White House, is that they were just not going to deem Heritage a news gathering organization.
[00:02:20]  And so for the Daily Signal to get the access that we felt we needed to cover the institutions in Washington, and I should add the Supreme Court in there as well, this was the step that we took.
[00:02:30]  And so I'm pleased to report today that we do have reporters who are credentialed in Congress.
[00:02:34]  We have a reporter who's at the White House, was there yesterday with the president in the Oval Office.
[00:02:38]  We have reporters who attend Supreme Court oral arguments, and we have reporters occasionally at the Pentagon today.
[00:02:43]  Yeah, I wanted to ask you about the Pentagon specifically because there's been that issue of trying to get them out of their office there at the Pentagon and putting more restrictions on what they're allowed to report and what kind of access they have.
[00:02:55]  What kind of access do you guys have?
[00:02:57]  Well, sure.
[00:02:57]  Well, everything, I feel like everything's a little bit in flux today because of the court decisions and appeals and things that are going through the judicial process.
[00:03:06]  What happened was last year, Secretary Hagseth put together a memo that he asked all of the correspondents in the Pentagon to sign, agreeing to certain rules for them to be in receipt of a press credential.
[00:03:20]  Now, the Pentagon, as you indicated, does have a correspondence corridor.
[00:03:24]  So they have office space.
[00:03:25]  Media organizations have office space.
[00:03:27]  They even have studio space as well as a briefing room similar to the White House where they would have those types of engagements with the secretary and other military officials.
[00:03:36]  Many of those news organizations, in fact, most of those news organizations said, no, we're not going to sign this document.
[00:03:43]  It put restrictions on their ability to share classified information.
[00:03:47]  It put restrictions on their movement within the Pentagon building itself.
[00:03:50]  The Pentagon put an offer out there to other news organizations to see if they would be open to filling some of those spots that were left vacant by other news organizations.
[00:04:02]  The Daily Signal did sign the document, but that document today is.
[00:04:08]  And I was there on December 1st when they opened it up and the Secretary and other Pentagon officials did a media row.
[00:04:16]  And so we were there in the briefing room for that opportunity.
[00:04:19]  Now, I should note, though, that a judge has ruled against the Secretary of War in this particular case.
[00:04:27]  And so what you've seen now, just this week, for instance, Secretary Hagseth had a press briefing, and you saw many of those same news organizations that had been in the Pentagon for years back in the briefing room asking him questions because that policy is not.
[00:04:42]  What's the situation, Rob, with who gets to ask a question at those Pentagon briefings?
[00:04:47]  Because I think that there's certain, like everybody's got a seat, and then only certain organizations can ask a question.
[00:04:55]  Everybody else is going to have to like yell it later once he's done.
[00:04:59]  Well, that was my experience too, back in December.
[00:05:01]  I mean, and I think it's probably the experience of anybody who's been in the White House press briefing room.
[00:05:05]  It's ultimately the prerogative of the president or the press secretary, or in this case, the secretary, to call on the individuals.
[00:05:11]  I mean, remember, Joe Biden famously had the list of reporters that was pre-screened for who he was going to call on.
[00:05:17]  So I don't think it's a Republican or Democrat thing.
[00:05:19]  I think it's more of a control thing that if you're a politician or a political leader, you have a certain type of reporter that you're looking to call on.
[00:05:28]  Now, sometimes I will say they like the adversarial nature of those conversations.
[00:05:33]  He will specifically call on somebody from NBC News, for instance, whom he might think asks a provocative question where he can be a little bit more combative.
[00:05:41]  And we've seen that in the past.

=== Presidential Power Over Press (08:02) ===

[00:05:43]  All right, so here's something I want to show you, and I want your reaction to it, because this is from the Pentagon briefing yesterday.
[00:05:49]  It's a Newsmax reporter who is typically very friendly to the Trump administration.
[00:05:55]  And here's the exchange, and then we'll talk about it.
[00:05:58]  I want to first express my gratitude and admiration for the work you do and for everyone involved in our armed forces and also for the accomplishments of Operation Epic Fury, which I think are too often dismissed too lightly.
[00:06:12]  But those accomplishments don't obscure, I think, a central default that has occurred here, and I would like you both to address it.
[00:06:21]  On the first day of this conflict, President Trump addressed the Iranian people directly and said, when we're finished, take over your government.
[00:06:30]  It'll be yours to take.
[00:06:32]  And then on the seventh day of the conflict, in a Truth Social post, the President said, quote, there will be no deal with Iran except all CAPS exclamation mark, unconditional surrender.
[00:06:45]  What happens to that pledge to the Iranians?
[00:06:48]  And when did the president decide to capitulate on his demand for unconditional surrender?
[00:06:54]  Well, James, I wouldn't.
[00:06:56]  I wouldn't.
[00:06:57]  You started out nicely, but you ended exactly where we knew you would end.
[00:07:01]  The president hasn't capitulated on anything.
[00:07:04]  He holds the cards.
[00:07:05]  We maintain the upper hand, and Project Freedom only strengthens that hand.
[00:07:09]  And so he will ensure that whatever deal is made or whatever end state is reached creates ensuring that Iran never has a nuclear weapon, which is A number one, and he's been focused on that, and the deal and discussions are centered on that.
[00:07:22]  And what the Iranian people take advantage of after the fact is up to them.
[00:07:25]  And he's been very clear about that.
[00:07:27]  And maybe you do it now, maybe it happens later, but ultimately he's also been clear: we're not going to entangle this into some nation-building project.
[00:07:36]  Our objectives are clear.
[00:07:39]  They've been pursued from day one.
[00:07:41]  Hopefully the Iranian people take advantage of that because they're being taken advantage of by this regime.
[00:07:46]  You know, 45,000 Iranians, innocent Iranians, killed before the outset of this.
[00:07:52]  That's what this government does, kills their own innocent civilians.
[00:07:55]  Getting out from underneath that is going to be a challenge of the Iranian people, and we certainly hope they take advantage of that.
[00:08:00]  Thank you.
[00:08:01]  Robert Bluey, were you surprised when you heard a Newsmax reporter say, ask the question, when did the president decide to capitulate?
[00:08:09]  Not necessarily.
[00:08:10]  I know the reporter in question, James.
[00:08:12]  I mean, he asked tough questions.
[00:08:14]  He asked them of Republicans and Democrats, and I'm not surprised that he would in this particular case.
[00:08:18]  Newsmax, I should note, also was one of the news organizations that refused to sign the memo that the secretary had put out last year because they felt that it had gone too far.
[00:08:27]  And so I can't say that this particular instance surprised me.
[00:08:31]  I think it may surprise viewers more broadly, though, because you typically would find, you would typically expect, I think, a conservative-leaning news organization to be perhaps a little bit more friendly to the Trump administration.
[00:08:43]  But I think it's the same reason why when we go into these conversations, whether it be a press conference on Capitol Hill with Speaker Johnson or Leader Thune, or a press briefing with the White House, that sometimes there is going to be conflict.
[00:08:59]  Conservative media does not necessarily subscribe to all of the Republican policies.
[00:09:04]  Remember, conservatives oftentimes say they are the ones who are holding a certain line of principles.
[00:09:10]  And when they believe that the either Trump administration or a Republican politician is in violation of those, it's their responsibility to ask those tough questions.
[00:09:20]  If you'd like to join the conversation with Robert Bluey, he is executive editor and president of the Daily Signal.
[00:09:26]  You can start calling in now.
[00:09:27]  Democrats are on 2028-8000.
[00:09:30]  Republicans 202-748-8001.
[00:09:32]  And Independents 202-748-8002.
[00:09:36]  President Trump has filed several lawsuits against news organizations.
[00:09:42]  Some of them have been dismissed.
[00:09:43]  Some of them have been settled.
[00:09:45]  What do you make of that?
[00:09:47]  And do you think that that in the end helps the American people or harms the American people?
[00:09:52]  It's a good question.
[00:09:53]  And it's one of the things that sets this president apart from his predecessors, who in many cases didn't take that step.
[00:10:00]  There was frustration, obviously.
[00:10:02]  You can go back to the founding of this country between a president and the press and their concerns about bias or unfair coverage.
[00:10:09]  I think this president probably has endured his share of attacks from the press that have pushed him to this point where he does feel he needs to take up these cases in a court of law.
[00:10:21]  As you indicated, it's ultimately going to be decided by a judge.
[00:10:24]  And in some cases, the president has successfully been able to get some of these companies to settle out of court.
[00:10:32]  They'd rather not go through the discovery process and have a lawsuit drag out.
[00:10:37]  And so CBS or ABC will decide that they'll do a multi-million dollar settlement with the president, make a donation to one of his causes.
[00:10:44]  In other cases, you're correct.
[00:10:46]  He's lost on these grounds.
[00:10:47]  We were just talking about the Pentagon case where news organizations sued the Pentagon.
[00:10:52]  And so ultimately, I don't think it poses the threat to the First Amendment or freedom of speech because I look at this administration, and I just gave you the example of what we endured during the Biden years, which I didn't feel received nearly the kind of coverage that it should have from the press when here was a presidential administration revoking the credentials of 442 White House correspondents, and it was a story that really flew under the radar.
[00:11:18]  Here you have a president who's a corporate.
[00:11:19]  And that was revoked.
[00:11:21]  Why was that?
[00:11:22]  Because you were part of the Heritage Foundation and not considered a news organization.
[00:11:25]  They revoked the credentials of White House correspondents who did not have as a prerequisite a congressional press credential.
[00:11:32]  So, anybody who was not previously credentialed by Congress, and Congress has a number of press galleries controlled by journalists who determine who gets access to the U.S. Capitol, if you did not have that as a prerequisite, the White House said you were going to get the boot out of their briefing room.
[00:11:49]  And so, that's one of the things that we did to rectify our situation.
[00:11:52]  We said, okay, we're going to first get the congressional credential.
[00:11:54]  It worked out in our case, but in other cases, there were people.
[00:11:58]  There was a reporter, Simon Atiba from Today News Africa, for instance, who often clashed with Korean John Pierre, who ended up suing the Biden administration in court over the loss of his credential.
[00:12:06]  And so, I think that there are always going to be those tensions.
[00:12:11]  I agree with you that President Trump has taken it to a new level, but I also think, and it's evident even just this week in the case of the Pulitzer Prize Awards, they tend to highlight and amplify an anti-Trump agenda at every opportunity.
[00:12:28]  Are you salty about not getting a Pulitzer nomination?
[00:12:30]  Conservatives created their own awards, by the way, to counter the Pulitzer, so it's quite interesting.
[00:12:35]  Well, so the FCC has threatened, though, to revoke licenses of broadcast networks that the president has complained about being critical of the Iran war.
[00:12:48]  What do you think of that?
[00:12:49]  And should broadcasters be limited in their coverage?
[00:12:53]  Well, the FCC chairman Brendan Carr has said that part of the responsibility, particularly of an ABC, NBC, or CBS, who do have these broadcast licenses that's different from cable news, just to distinguish, you know, obviously, they have a certain responsibility in the public interest to tell the truth and be held to a higher standard.
[00:13:15]  And so, ultimately, I don't know if those are going to be successful.
[00:13:20]  I would imagine those networks would challenge them in court, right?
[00:13:25]  But I think that what you've seen, the two big disputes that have come up were the one last year in the case of ABC and Jimmy Kimmel, and then most more recently.
[00:13:34]  We are going to leave this here, but you can finish watching it with the C-SPAN Now approaching the public.
[00:13:39]  Back now to the Milken Foundation conference in Los Angeles to hear from actress Eva Longoria.
[00:13:43]  This is live coverage on C-SPAN.