Scott Bessent Slams Journalists Over AF1 Switch and WHCD Shooting Coverage to Defend Trump Ban

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused the press of caring mostly about itself while defending President Donald Trump’s CNN, MS NOW, and Politico ban on Monday’s Squawk Box.

Bessent spoke with CNBC’s Joe Kernen in anticipation of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit this week, when the topic of Trump’s ban came up.

“Some of these reporters, they just don’t do their job well,” Bessent said. “We’ll have something, and then they’ll ask some crazy question.”

Kernan jumped in to defend the media.

“I know you have said that you’re here for policy. You don’t like, you don’t want any palace drama,” Kernen said. “And you’ve called ‘swamp creatures,’ and things. I understand all that. But that’s the way — you can’t control the press, right? The press is going to press, media is going to media.”

“Joe, you know, the one thing I’m sure of, the press cares more about the press than anything else,” Bessent declared.

He continued:

That after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, that they didn’t come in there to kill the press, they came in to kill the president. But all we heard about was the personal experiences of the press people in the room, because somehow they were more important. Same thing with the aircraft in Ankara that the presidential pool saying, “Oh, we were so vulnerable.” They were there to kill the president of United States of America! And the Secret Service made a decision. So, you know, again, one thing I am sure is, that this will be covered by the press. And, you know, I think we could get back to something that is a little more — I can’t even remember which network it is — “fair and balanced.”

Trump defended his press ban on Truth Social Monday, writing, “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America.”

“It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!” Trump wrote.

Watch the clip above via CNBC’s Squawk Box.

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