Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘It’s Insane’: Mark Halperin, Sean Spicer Unload On NBC News For Scheduling ‘Hostile’ Panel To Analyze Trump Interview

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Political analyst Mark Halperin and former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer criticized NBC News on Friday for its lineup of panelists slated to analyze President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming interview on “Meet the Press.”

The panel, set to air after Trump’s Sunday interview with host Kristen Welker, includes Politico correspondent and MSNBC analyst Eugene Daniels, NBC News correspondent Carol Lee, MSNBC host Jen Psaki and Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short, Politico reported. Halperin and Spicer, on “The Morning Meeting,” expressed frustration over the absence of any panelists who might offer a balanced perspective on Trump.

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“This is again why I was so disappointed they went to ‘Meet the Press.’ This is a joke,” Spicer said.

“It is a joke and I can understand how whoever made the decision at NBC and at ‘Meet the Press,’ how they could look at that and say, ‘This is the right group of people. This represents America’ … It’s ridiculous. I mean, it’s ridiculous,” Halperin responded. “And if you’re watching us now and you don’t know why we feel so strongly about how ridiculous this is, we’ll do a whole episode about it. It is ridiculous. He won the popular vote. He won the Electoral College. He’s going to be president and the panel on to discuss the interview is people who are hostile to him. It’s insane.”

Spicer clarified that he doesn’t oppose Trump confronting hard questions, but suggested that the panelists are unlikely to provide meaningful analysis due to their lack of “understanding” of Trump.

Halperin added that it would reflect poorly on NBC News if it attempted to recruit a more balanced panelist but “failed” to do so. He asserted the network should acknowledge if it made such an effort.

The “Meet the Press” interview will be Trump’s first network interview defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in November, according to Politico.

Trump’s last interview with Welker on “Meet the Press” was in September 2023.

“I want to know what’s in your head, when you go to bed at night do you worry about going to jail?” she asked during the interview.

“No I don’t really, I don’t even think about it. I’m built a little differently I guess because I’ve had people come up to me and say how do you do it, sir, how do you do it? I don’t even think about it,” Trump answered. “These are corrupt people that I’m dealing with. They’re destroying the country. I don’t even think about it. All I think about is making our country great, making America great.”