September 17, 2023 was the start of a new era at NBC News with Kristen Welker stepping into the Meet the Press moderator chair on a permanent basis.
Welker’s first broadcast got off to a headline-making start: A taped, sit-down interview with former President Donald Trump, who currently leads the 2024 Republican presidential primary field by a substantial margin.
The interview became testy at times, as is often the case when Trump is involved. Welker at one point asked the ex president about his actions on January 6 and why didn’t he do more to put an end to the insurrection his supporters held at the U.S. Capitol.
Welker also probed Trump on his false 2020 presidential election claims and his attempts to overturn his loss to now-President Joe Biden. After Trump disputed the testimony of former chief of staff Mark Meadows’ top aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Welker asked him to discuss what exactly he was doing while his supporters attacked Congress in hopes of stopping the 2020 election certification.
WELKER: Tell me how you watched this all unfold. Were you in the dining room watching TV?”
TRUMP: I’m not going to tell you.
WELKER: What did you do when the Capitol was under attack though?”
Trump answered by noting the video he released where he told his supporters to go home.
“That was at 4 o’clock in the afternoon,” responded Welker. “More than three hours after the attack.”
The exchange continued with Welker asking Trump who he called to stop the riot that day.
“Why would I tell you that?” Trump responded. He then stated the lie that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed the riot to happen. Trump repeatedly refused to say if he called the military or law enforcement to deal with the insurrection, even as Welker pointed out that “Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have the authority that you have as commander in chief… Why didn’t you send help in that moment?”
Welker then asked Trump on where he stands on a potential federal abortion ban.
WELKER: Would you sign federal legislation that would ban abortion at 15 weeks?
TRUMP: What’s going to happen is you’re going to come up with a number of weeks or months. You’re going to come up with a number that’s going to make people happy. Because 92% of the Democrats don’t want to see abortion after a certain period of time.
WELKER: If a federal ban landed on your desk if you were reelected, would you sign it at 15 weeks –
TRUMP: Are you talking about a complete ban?
WELKER: A ban at 15 weeks.
TRUMP: Well, people, people are starting to think of 15 weeks. That seems to be a number that people are talking about right now.
WELKER: Would you sign that?
TRUMP: I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years. I’m not going to say I would or I wouldn’t. I mean, DeSanctus is willing to sign a five-week and six-week ban.
WELKER: Would you support that? You think that goes too far?
TRUMP: I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. But we’ll come up with a number, but at the same time, Democrats won’t be able to go out at six months, seven months, eight months and allow an abortion.
Welker then tried to pin Trump down regarding a federal ban. She got close.
TRUMP: It could be state or it could be federal. I don’t frankly care.
WELKER: So you’re not committed to a ban at the federal level.
TRUMP: I will say this. Everybody, including the great legal scholars, love the idea of Roe v. Wade terminated so it can be brought back to the states.
NBC News issued three levels of fact checks throughout the interview: 1) in real-time during the interview; 2) in a breakdown on NBCNews.com; and 3) Following every segment on the broadcast, Welker broke in with fact checks.
In fact, it seemed as though there was as much fact-checking or discussion of fact-checking as there was broadcasting of the actual back and forth between interviewer and interviewee.
There were calls on social media to “#BoycottMeetthePress” in the lead up to the Trump interview, on Twitter and Facebook alike. Welker was acutely aware of the criticism she was receiving for her decision to conduct the interview. After defending the decision (of course), Welker turned to New York Times political reporter and MTP panelist Peter Baker for his thoughts on the importance of interviewing Trump.
“This is a huge challenge for American journalists, of course, right?,” Baker began. “It can’t be that a person can run for president United States be a front runner and his party and possibly win without ever being challenged by a tough, independent interviewer. And that’s, I think, an important part of our system. Now, obviously the challenge for us because he is just going to spout out one thing after another, in fact, I mean, real time is a real hard thing. But what you’ve done here is edit it and make sure people understand what he’s what’s real and what’s not.”
Today’s broadcast of Meet the Press wasn’t only different in terms of who was sitting at the desk, it also looked different from a production and design standpoint.
We caught up with NBC News design and production chief Marc Greenstein to learn a bit more about the new studio design.
“The largest physical change was the desk,” said Greenstein. “The goal was to create a contemporary furniture piece that emits warmth, feels on trend, and is welcoming both in person and on camera.
Viewers may have noticed a new graphics package on today’s broadcast as well.
“The concept of the new graphics was looking at storytelling through the lens of a kaleidoscope,” said Greenstein. “We wanted to represent the multiple sides of a debate or angles of a story, and we used this concept visually in the open and elsewhere to demonstrate different sides of related content.”
In her close to the broadcast, Welker thanked her mentors and paid credit to barrier breaking journalists that came before.
Before we go, I want to take a moment to thank you, our viewers. It is an incredible honor to be sitting in this chair and I feel the huge responsibility it carries. I also want to recognize all of the women, all of the people of color, who’ve been pathfinders to make this moment possible, as well as all of the journalists who have mentored me along the way. When my colleague Andrea Mitchell applied for her first job at a news radio station in Philadelphia in 1967, she was told the newsroom was no place for a woman. Well, she talked them into hiring her for the overnight shift. I’m here because she and other fearless women never stopped fighting for their places in the newsroom.
Welker also recognized moderators of the Sunday shows, all of which are now moderated or co-moderated by women.
Now, all five Sunday shows are moderated or co-moderated by women. So to Martha [Raddatz], Margaret [Brennan], Dana [Bash], and Shannon [Bream], I am incredibly honored to join you on Sunday mornings. I also stand on the shoulders of the first moderator and co-founder of this broadcast, Martha Rountree, who had the courage to launch this program back in 1947.
