A MAGA talking head is the latest new recruit to the White House briefing room.
Rogan O’Handley, a.k.a. “DC Draino,” made his first appearance in the new media seat in the coveted federal space Monday, asking a question of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt that was more Trumpian propaganda regarding the potential death of habeas corpus than independent inquiry.
“In [Donald] Trump’s first 99 days, we’ve seen a coordinated assault on the rule of law by radical judges,” O’Handley said. “These judges are providing more due process to violent MS-13 and Tren de Aragua illegal aliens than they did for American citizens who peacefully protested on January 6.”
That is, of course, not true. Family members and friends of the deportees accused of being members of the violent Venezuelan gang claimed their loved ones had never been a part of Tren de Aragua. Further still, some of the men forced to board the planes had no criminal record—something that would not have slipped under the radar had they had their time in front of a judge.
And of course, January 6 was by no means peaceful.
O’Handley then went on to quote White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who claimed that it would be “ridiculous” to offer “full trials” for the 15 million immigrants who had crossed the border, presuming that they would all be kicked out of the country.
Last week, Miller claimed that it would take “centuries” to remove immigrants from the country if the Trump administration were to abide by the Constitution in executing its mass deportation program.
On Instagram, O’Handley insisted that his voice in the White House briefing room had tried to “provide solutions for doing mass deportations” rather than “complain.”
The White House opened up its briefing room to “new media” in January, a category that encompasses professional journalists as well as podcasters, influencers, and other news-related content creators. In Trump’s second term, these special few are allowed the first opportunity to speak during each biweekly session, during which Leavitt will typically answer 15 to 20 questions.
So far, some of the occupants of the “new media” chair have included content creators from Breitbart, the right-wing video platform Rumble, BreakingPoints, the Daily Wire, former Newsmax host Mark Halperin, and the right-wing substack Washington Reporter.
The Trump administration announced in March that it would be conducting a total shakeup of the briefing room’s seating chart, bumping heads with the White House Correspondents’ Association—an independent group that has traditionally overseen seat assignments—as the Trump administration attempts to control who gets their questions answered.
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