Sen. Schatz Comments on Trump’s Threat to NBC

President Donald Trump’s official portrait from Wikimedia Commons.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet, released the following statement today after President Donald Trump threatened to challenge NBC’s broadcast license.

“The president’s threat against NBC and other media outlets is far from empty,” said Sen. Schatz. “In 1974, President Nixon and his top aides discussed using the FCC’s license renewal process to punish the Washington Post for its Watergate coverage. Today, Donald Trump has threatened to do the same to NBC. In confirmation hearings for Ajit Pai, we raised this possibility. Now, the FCC must show that it is loyal to the law, not the president and make clear that it rejects this kind of interference.”

During Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s confirmation hearing in July, Sen. Schatz raised the possibility of the White House interfering with the FCC’s affairs and questioned Chairman Pai about any inappropriate contact the FCC may have had with the White House.