Trump Calls for FCC to Punish NBC's Kristen Welker, Carr Says Agency Is 'Looking at a Lot of Actions'

President Trump wants NBC's Kristen Welker punished by the government. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr isn't ruling it out.

The dispute started with a segment on NBC's Meet the Press. Welker, previewing an episode around August 30, said Trump "has endorsed a slate of candidates in the primaries" and "had some mixed results," according to TheWrap. She noted his pick of Darline Graham — described in the segment, per TheWrap's account, as "the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham" — had won her South Carolina Senate primary over Dr. Annie Andrews.

Trump didn't like the word "mixed." He posted on Truth Social that Welker, whom he called the "Unpopular 'Hostess' of the once great Meet the Press, now considered Meet the Fake Press," had committed "purposeful inaccuracy" and "will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment," according to CNN. He argued his recent Senate and House picks were running near 100 percent.

On September 6, Carr went on Fox News's "The Sunday Briefing" and didn't shut the door. "President Trump is over the target. We're looking at a lot of actions," Carr told host Peter Doocy, as reported by TheWrap. Carr floated FCC guidance reminding broadcasters of their obligations around "fake polls" that could suppress turnout ahead of the fall elections. He didn't confirm whether a formal complaint against Welker had actually been filed.

NBC News is standing behind its anchor. The network called Welker "one of the best in the business," according to TheWrap and eciks.

Is 'mixed' even wrong?

Welker's characterization has real numbers behind it, on both sides. Ballotpedia's tally, cited by eciks, puts Trump's overall primary endorsement win rate at 96 percent this cycle. That's a strong record by any measure. But it's not a perfect one. Multiple sources documented actual losses among Trump-backed candidates — Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, according to eciks, and Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Lindell, and Amir Hassan in Michigan, according to TheWrap. CNN also noted that NBC's own reporting found six Trump-backed candidates for House and governor lost their primaries earlier that month, and that other outlets, including CNN, have similarly described Trump's recent endorsement record as "mixed." Whether a 96 percent win rate with several high-profile losses counts as "mixed" is a matter of framing and word choice, not a factual error the FCC has any business adjudicating.

What the FCC can actually do

The agency's own website states it "cannot prevent the broadcast of any particular point of view," according to CNN. There is no formal mechanism for the public to file a complaint objecting to a specific news report's content. Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the five-member commission, said plainly that "the FCC has no authority to punish journalists this administration doesn't like," adding on X that "these threats to press freedom are dangerous" and "undermine the foundation of our democracy," per CNN.

Carr's defenders make a point worth taking seriously: broadcast television isn't cable, print, or the internet. Stations use public airwaves licensed by the government, and in exchange they've historically operated under public-interest obligations that don't apply to other media. "So many broadcasters right now, they want to break the deal that they cut with the American people," Carr said, per TheWrap. "They get billions of dollars in taxpayer [money]... What they're supposed to do in exchange is operate in the public interest, not some sort of narrow partisan interest." That's a legitimate regulatory framework question, but it differs from threatening a specific anchor over a specific word choice in a specific segment.

This isn't Carr's first swing at a network over Trump's complaints. In March, he threatened broadcast licenses over Iran war coverage, according to CNN and eciks. In April, one day after Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel's firing, Carr opened a challenge to ABC's local station licenses, justified by a DEI probe into parent company Disney, per CNN. Disney and ABC sued the FCC in August, arguing the agency's license review amounts to a "retaliatory campaign" and government censorship. Carr called the suit "without merit," according to NPR, and the FCC has asked a federal judge to dismiss it as "meritless," per eciks.

Not every Republican is comfortable with this. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, had previously warned that Carr's threats of action against ABC were "dangerous as hell," according to eciks.

No formal FCC complaint against Welker has been confirmed as filed, and no enforcement action has been announced. Carr said only that guidance "may" come soon. Whether that guidance targets a named anchor over a word in a preview segment, or stays limited to general polling standards, is the open question heading into the fall campaign.