Front Row at the Trump Show Quotes

“It struck me that there is a reason James Madison put freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the very first amendment. If we can't speak out, if we cannot challenge those in power, there is no guaranteeing the rights that follow.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“In fact, the Justice Department argued, the president could ban the entire press corps from the White House: “No journalist has a First Amendment right to enter the White House.” As a reporter who has covered the White House on and off for two decades, I thought this was a terrifying argument, and it was especially disturbing that it was being made by the US Department of Justice on behalf of the president.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“And, as a reporter, sometimes you need to fight back. If the president declares real stories fake, the record must be corrected. If a president attempts to block reporters from covering the work of his administration, we need to fight back. If a president attempts to use the tools of law enforcement to target reporters for doing their jobs, reporters and news organizations need to fight back.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“When a source speaking off the record lies to me, the implicit agreement between reporter and source has been violated. It is no longer off the record.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“The proliferation of news outlets and the democratization of information through the internet gives Americans the power to be more informed than ever, but it also makes it easier for us to feast on a diet of information that echoes and never challenges our biases and our beliefs. This deepens our divisions and makes them more difficult to overcome.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“I've tried to deserve the privilege the best I can,' John McCain] said. 'And I've been repaid one thousand times over with adventures and good company, with the satisfaction of serving something more important than myself, of being a bit player in the extraordinary story of America. And I am so grateful.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“In a situation like that, it is the reporter's responsibility either to get an answer or to demonstrate that the politicians are ignoring the questions.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“Kessler is a tireless and fair journalist who does not shy from calling out untruths uttered by either Democrats or Republicans. By mid-2019, Kessler’s team had documented more than ten thousand false or misleading statements by the president—an ignominious record unlikely to be matched by any other public figure.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“What am I supposed to do,” I asked, “hail a taxi at the Mexico City airport and say, ‘Take me to Donald Trump’?”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“Donald Trump lies for comic effect, he lies to make himself feel good, he lies to make you feel good, he lies because he likes to, he lies because he can.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“A US”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“How do you report on a president who will look you in the eye and tell you something he knows is not true? How do you maintain standards of fairness and objectivity when reporting on somebody who has branded you a traitor to your own country?”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“As former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, ' You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“I didn't become a reporter to dutifully record the words of the people in power. I became a reporter, in part, to hold those in power accountable.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“As a thirty-seven-year-old Donald Trump told New York Times sportswriter Ira Berkow in 1984, ‘‘Creating illusions, to an extent, is what has to be”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“an untenable choice is not something the First Amendment can tolerate. Nor can the First Amendment—or our democracy as a whole, for that matter, tolerate yielding to the President the power to effectively choose who does and who does not cover him.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“Simply stated, if the President were to have absolute discretion to strip a correspondent of his [press] pass, the chilling effect would be severe and the First Amendment protections afforded journalists to gather and report news on the activities of the President would be largely eviscerated. White House correspondents would have to choose between avoiding reporting or questioning that could upset the President, on the one hand, and risk the loss of a [press] pass—a requirement of the job—on the other hand. Forcing those who cover the President to make such”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“The WHCA amicus brief addressed the far-reaching implications of the president’s argument—implications not just for reporters or news organizations but for American democracy.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“article that a journalist writes about him, he can deny that journalist access to the White House. If he does not like the viewpoint that a journalist expresses about him, he can deny that journalist access to the White House. If he decides that a journalist’s story is “fake news,” he can deny that journalist access to the White House. In fact, according to the President, if he alone considers a journalist a “bad” or a “rude” person, he can deny that journalist access to the White House.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“First, the WHCA amicus brief outlines the clear implications of the president’s argument as put forth in the Justice Department response to the CNN lawsuit: The President of the United States maintains that he has absolute, unbridled discretion to decide who can report from inside the White House. Under the President’s view of the law, if he does not like the content of an”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“In fact, the Justice Department argued, the president could ban the entire press corps from the White House: “No journalist has a First Amendment right to enter the White House.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“the president himself told Lesley Stahl, the reason he goes after the press is that he wants to be able to cast doubt on genuine reporting. Negative story? What do you expect from the opposition party? As reporters, we make that strategy destructively effective if we act like the opposition.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“If people believe the news is fake, they won’t believe the negative stories. If people believe the press is the opposition party, news stories are seen as no more trustworthy than political attack ads.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“I said, you know that is getting tired, why are you doing this—you’re doing it over and over and it’s boring,” Stahl said, recounting the moment at a journalism forum in May 2018. “He said you know why I do it? I”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“I’m sure the attorney general would acknowledge that anybody who touches US soil has a right to due process,” she said.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“But he hadn’t really answered my question, so I tried another. “You reject those who say he’s racist?” “You had one question,” he said. “I answered your question. I don’t answer questions in simple sound bites. You are tasting a fine wine. It has multiple notes to it. You better play four-D chess with me like it’s Minority Report. Because it ain’t that simple. It’s complex.”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show

“Monday after John McCain died. I showed up for work and noticed that the flag over the White House was not at half-staff. Why would the flag not be at half-staff following the death of someone widely seen as an American hero?”
― Jonathan Karl, Front Row at the Trump Show