Former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield tore into former Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry during a CNN segment after he cited Joe Biden while discussing President Donald Trump’s crackdown on three major news organizations.
The exchange unfolded Monday on “The Arena” with host Kasie Hunt as the panel discussed the White House’s controversial new ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico — a move the outlets are now challenging in federal court.
McHenry argued that Trump’s frequent access to reporters should be weighed against the ban.
“What President Trump does for media availability in a month’s time is more than President Biden did in a year’s time,” McHenry said. “So in fairness, every president tries to control the narrative.”
McHenry said that while Trump’s latest media ban is “a very specific thing,” he pointed to the president taking questions in the Oval Office “three or four times a week.”
“So I think you have to balance this out a little bit, in fairness,” he added.
Bedingfield quickly rejected the comparison.
“Biden took questions from the pool that covered him almost every day — shouted questions,” she said. “Now, we can have a whole debate about his communication strategy. That’s fine.”
But she argued that Biden’s approach was “substantively very different” from a president telling selected outlets they could no longer cover his administration.”
“I got it,” McHenry said. “I hear you.”
“You know I have enormous respect for you,” Bedingfield told McHenry. “To equate those two things is ludicrous and a little dangerous.”
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