Bad News Plagues the Administration

Letters from an American

The episode details a series of actions by the Trump administration aimed at consolidating executive power and undermining democratic institu

Key takeaways

• Trump excluded CNN from the press pool during a trip to Tennessee, labeling them 'fake news'.
• Prosecutor Sherry Mecklenburg resigned, alleging Andrew Boudreaux used her as a scapegoat for misconduct in the Broadview Six case.

Main topics

• Press Freedom and Media Control
• Department of Justice Misconduct

Notable quotes

Fake news should not be allowed in the White House.

Conclusion

The episode illustrates a systemic effort by the administration to byp

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:06) Hello, this is Michael Moss. Heather Cox Richardson is unable to read the letter today, so I will be reading it in her place. Speaker 1 (0:16) September 26th, 2026. Trump's war on the free press is continuing. Last night, Scott Nover of the Washington Post reported that the White House would not allow reporters from CNN on Air Force One as part of the press pool to cover the president as he traveled to Tennessee for a college football game. CNN is a member of the pool made up of five major TV networks. The other two outlets Trump tried to ban from the White House, MSNOW and Politico, are part of a different pool. CNN was scheduled to provide the television footage for the trip. At 6.51 this morning, Trump's social media account posted, Why should perpetrators of fake news like CNN and MSDNC be allowed access to a very sacred place, the White House? Despite my big election win, almost 100 % of Trump coverage is negative and has been for years. Speaker 1 (1:20) He followed up at 8.22 with, Fake news should not be allowed in the White House. It has gone on far too long at a tremendous cost to our country. Later in the morning, he told reporters, I love an open free press. What I don't like is the fake press. What we don't want is, we don't want fake news. Speaker 1 (1:45) As bad news continues to plague the administration, Trump has reasons for wanting to control the press. On Thursday, in a scathing letter, a key prosecutor in the case of the six people charged with felonies after a protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, Broadview detention facility in Illinois, the Broadview Six, resigned under protest. Sherry Mecklenburg was a career prosecutor in the Department of Justice who was near retirement and appeared to have doubts about the felony charges against the six protesters. In the protest, people surrounded an ICE vehicle, but only the six, all of whom were active in Democratic politics, were charged. When the cases fell apart because of prosecutorial misconduct, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boudreaux, a strong Trump supporter, laid all of the blame for the misconduct on Mecklenburg, claiming he had been out of the loop in how the case was progressing. But in her resignation letter, Mecklenburg said she was retiring so