White House Faces Questions on Arrest and Press Freedom (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Was this really about what you just described, or was it about trying to make an example out of somebody who the president has sparred with?

[00:00:10] Speaker 2: I don't even know that the president's even ever thought of Don Lemon. I don't know whether that's true or not. But I will tell you, we're not making examples of people. The day after that happened, the attorney general flew to Minneapolis. She was there for three days. What we saw, there is no scenario under which the American people are comfortable or think that that was right. I'm sorry. So, no, it's not about making an example. It's about justice.

[00:00:29] Speaker 1: I want to move on. But the White House, on the official Twitter handle, celebrated his arrest with a social media and a chain emoji. And so it's pretty clear that they're very well aware in the White House of this. I want to ask about Georgia. Because this week— No, I didn't say they weren't aware.

[00:00:45] Speaker 2: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on one second. I didn't say they weren't aware. And they were celebrating it. That was afterwards. I didn't say they weren't aware. You said that—no, no. You said that President Trump had some vendetta or something against Mr. Lemon. I said, I don't know whether he even ever thought of Mr. Lemon. I have no idea. He called him a sleazebag. Right. There was a tweet that went out.

[00:01:00] Speaker 1: Just so you know, he called him a sleazebag just yesterday. After his arrest.

[00:01:04] Speaker 2: But I— After his arrest.

[00:01:05] Speaker 1: OK. Just—you said a lot of things before that. And it's mutual. There are countless examples of when reporters are embedded with people, with, you know, DOD, where we are told not to tell anybody where we're going. There are numerous examples of when we get embargoed information that we can't report from your agency, for example, and that has happened on—with presidents in both parties, and we withhold reporting it until you say it's time to report it. That's not unusual. And it's not unlike what happened with Don Lemon in Georgia Fort.

[00:01:44] Speaker 2: Well, listen, I—you are totally correct that that happens every day, and it's happened for decades. But if you watch what Mr. Lemon did—OK, and I do not want to have a trial right here. It's not fair to him. But I will say that he—if you watch the publicly available live streaming that he engaged in, the comments that he made, I mean, that's what matters, right? It matters, like, how do we balance the FACE Act, how do we balance freedom of religion, the right of people to worship on a Sunday morning, OK, and the freedom of the press? And it's a balance that we have to engage in. I agree with you. But my point to you is that I promise you that neither you nor your colleagues can honestly, with a straight face, if you watch everything that he did the day before, with the planning, and the day of, with what happened, the comments he made while the kids were crying and screaming and racing away, while the parents were looking for their children upstairs, while they were just trying to have a church service.