Tuesday, September 8, 2026

FCC Chair Comments On Meet the Press, Political Rates


FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Sunday that President Donald Trump is “over the target” after Trump demanded the agency rebuke or punish NBC’s Kristen Welker for saying his midterm endorsement record was “mixed.”

Asked on Fox News’s “The Sunday Briefing” whether the FCC had received Trump’s complaint, Carr did not say a report had arrived. He instead argued that broadcast television is unlike cable and other platforms because stations receive what he called taxpayer-subsidized spectrum and must serve the public interest, “not some sort of narrow, partisan interest.”

“I think President Trump is over the target, and we’re looking at a lot of actions,” Carr said. He added that the FCC may soon issue guidance warning broadcasters not to air “fake polls,” especially if they could suppress turnout this fall.

The dispute began after Welker, on a “Meet the Press” preview Sunday August 30 on NBC’s Washington affiliate, said Trump would “loom large” over the midterms and had endorsed a slate of primary candidates with “some mixed results.” 

She noted that his pick of Sen. Darline Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, had won in South Carolina and would face Dr. Annie Andrews.

Trump attacked that characterization on Truth Social, calling Welker the “Unpopular ‘Hostess’” of “Meet the Fake Press” and saying recent Senate wins for Graham and Mike Mazzei showed a 100% Senate success rate and 98% in the House. He wrote that no one “working for freely given Public Airwaves” should be allowed to say otherwise and that he would report her to the FCC “for rebuke or punishment.”

Days earlier, Trump had posted that his endorsements were “stronger than ever” and attached what he called an accurate list of results. Although Trump has more wins than losses this cycle, about 10 candidates he endorsed have lost their primaries.

Carr also discussed Friday’s high-court action, which paused a Fourth Circuit ruling that had limited the “lowest unit charge” to candidates themselves. The stay allows party committees and joint fundraising committees to pay the cheaper rates when they buy TV and radio ads coordinated with candidates. Those discounted rates took effect Friday, 60 days before the Nov. 3 elections.

Carr said the Supreme Court ruling will let political parties buy campaign ads at the same discounted broadcast rates long reserved for candidates — a change that arrives as Republicans hold a large cash advantage over Democrats heading into the midterms. 

He also highlighted the fundraising imbalance between the major party committees. Recent Federal Election Commission filings show the Republican National Committee holding more than $128 million in cash with no debt, while the Democratic National Committee has reported roughly $9.5 million to $16 million on hand and about $18 million in debt. Combined, the RNC, NRCC, and NRSC ended July with about $279 million, more than double the roughly $136 million held by their Democratic counterparts.

The practical effect is large. Party officials have said lowest-unit-charge rates have historically been three to 13 times cheaper than the market rates paid by outside groups. Combined with the Court’s June decision striking down caps on coordinated party-candidate spending, the ruling lets committees stretch their dollars further on the airwaves.
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