WASHINGTON — At the Department of Government Efficiency‘s recommendation, Congress is preparing to pass President Donald Trump‘s $9 billion rescission legislation, which includes large cuts to NPR and PBS.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who said these cuts would be “a real risk” to U.S. safety. At the White House press briefing, Leavitt defended the cuts by listing several instances in which NPR and other public broadcasting showed bias in their reporting.
“This is a taxpayer-funded organization,” Leavitt said. “In 2018, that same CEO that you’re talking about called the president in the Oval Office, who nearly 80 million Americans elected … she called him racist.”
“NPR refused to cover the Hunter Biden laptop scandal in the run-up to the election,” she continued. “They said their assertions don’t amount to much, writing they did not want to waste the listeners and readers time on stories that are just pure distractions. That does not sound like an unbiased opinion.”
“In 2020, PBS’s White House correspondent at the time characterized President Trump’s speech, then at Mount Rushmore,” she added. “As a love letter to white resentment, promoting the myth of America.”
“These are not honest news organizations,” Leavitt said. “These are partisan left-wing outlets that are funded by the taxpayers. And this administration does not believe it’s a good use of the taxpayers’ time and money.”
Leavitt made these statements in response to Maher’s comments in a CBS interview before the vote.
“Defunding this is a real risk to the public safety of the country,” Maher told CBS. “Public media, public radio, public television, are a critical part of the emergency response plans of nearly half of the states in this nation.”
Leavitt dismissed the cuts as a threat to public safety.
“I am not sure how NPR helps the public safety of our country,” Leavitt said. “But I do know that NPR, unfortunately, has become really just a propaganda voice for the left.”
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The Senate voted Wednesday to advance the rescission legislation with a final vote of 51-48. It will now be sent back to the House for final approval, where it is expected to pass quickly and head to Trump’s desk for his signature.
Congress also hopes to pass several more rescission bills in an effort to make significant steps toward balancing the United States’s budget.
