NewsBusters Associate Editor Nick Fondacaro and I were joined by 2026 MRC Bulldog Award winner for Outstanding Reporter Jennie Taer of the Daily Wire to discuss her latest news-breaking scoops on the immigration beat. She shared her latest exclusive on the left’s latest meltdown over an ICE facility in northern New Jersey. We also shared some of the stories that we cited in our Bulldog Award citation, including a wild backstory to how she came to find herself inside the Houston-area trailer of the Islamist terrorist behind the January 1, 2025 terror attack in New Orleans. Later, we discussed Taer’s rise from The Laura Ingraham Show intern to one of the country’s leading immigration reporters with SaraCarter.com, the Daily Caller News Foundation, and the New York Post before her current role at the Daily Wire. Taer closed with some salient career advice to anyone looking to break into politics and journalism. One of the hardest-working and highest-character reporters out there, her advice is worth sharing with any intern or recent grad. And before chatting with Taer, Nick and I tore into Scott Pelley for his arrogant ambush of his CBS News and the subsequent pearl-clutching once he was fired. Watch the full show below or listen wherever you like to find your favorite podcasts.

In a mind-boggling bit of double-standard hypocrisy, Thursday's Morning Joe devoted a pearl-clutching segment to the left's newfound narrative that President Trump supposedly falls asleep in meetings and is thus a sign of cognitive decline. The segment began with a clip of Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu (CA) confronting Secretary of State Marco Rubio with a video that claimed to show President Trump dozing off, which Rubio blasted as “false” since “the guy doesn’t sleep, which is a big problem, ‘cause he calls me at two in the morning, he calls me at five in the morning...I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Co-host Jonathan Lemire opened his chat with fellow co-host Willie Geist by posing with eyes shut [see screencap], then jolting awake. But even as they tried to paint Trump as unfit, Lemire and Geist ended up admitting Rubio’s core point — that far from being lethargic, Trump works very long hours. “Well, he is up all night, but he's sending out thirty-five, forty, fifty, sixty tweets in the space of a couple of hours. That's what he's doing in the middle of the night,” Geist said. Lemire pulled on that string: “We have seen, a couple times in the last week, Trump stay up till all hours of the night posting AI slop and ridiculous memes on Truth Social. So, yeah, he's up late doing that.” Their admissions didn't stop Lemire from fretting: “I think it's a fair line of inquiry to note, the guy turns 80 in less than two weeks. He was just at Walter Reed again for a physical. There are questions about his health, and his ability to do the job. That is fair game right now.” Morning Joe Suddenly Concerned About Presidential Fitness. Sleepy Joe, Hello? pic.twitter.com/vC6xko0g0c — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) June 4, 2026 So Trump's fitness is “fair game.” But back when Biden was in office, clips revealing his shocking decline were “deep fakes” and “cheap fakes.” The segment perfectly captured the media’s selective outrage over “fitness for office.” The same MS NOW crew that spent years gaslighting the country about Joe Biden’s obvious unfitness for office now pretends to be deeply concerned when Trump briefly closes his eyes during a long meeting. Where was this sudden interest in presidential stamina when Biden was wandering off stage, freezing mid-sentence, and mixing up world leaders? Back then, panelist Eugene Robinson declared Biden “sharp as a tack,” and, in what became our 2024 Quote of the Year, Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough angrily told viewers this was “the best Biden ever, and f-you if you don’t believe it.” The double standard is blatant. Trump works grueling hours and makes calls in the middle of the night. Yet the media only discovers health concerns when a Republican is in the White House. PS: Where is Phil Hartman, now that we need him? Here's the transcript. MS NOW's Morning Joe 06/04/26 6:48 am EDT CONGRESSMAN TED LIEU (D-CA): You've been at more than one meeting where President Trump has fallen asleep. SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: That's false. That's false. I've never seen him fall asleep. On the contrary, the guy doesn't sleep, which is a big problem, 'cause he calls me at two in the morning, he calls me at five in the morning, and, you know, I like to sleep a little bit, maybe not twelve hours, or spend at least six. So he works — The other day he was at the Oval Office until twelve thirty PM, twelve thirty AM. I don't know what you're talking about. LIEU: Secretary Rubio, I'm gonna show you in a moment a video that shows you just lied to Congress.  RUBIO: Oh, okay. LIEU: So this is a video of a cabinet meeting literally from last month, where Donald Trump is sleeping while you are talking. Please show this video. RUBIO: A coalition of countries that line up behind the peace deal, behind the border peace, and it's still an,  every day is a challenge, but it's been driven personally by the president. It's the reason why we're involved in this whole Ukraine-Russia conflict. That's not our war, it's not the president's war. This war started, it never would have happened if you'd been president. But this war's going on, and the president is trying to end it. LIEU: You are literally talking about issues of war and peace, and Donald Trump is sleeping right next to you. WILLIE GEIST: Jonathan Lemire, even when he's being praised in a grotesque way, he still falls asleep in those cabinet meetings. Of course, he's fallen asleep in front of the camera, that was just one instance. Also, to talk about Donald Trump being up all night working, well, he is up all night, but he's sending out thirty-five, forty, fifty, sixty tweets in the space of a couple of hours. That's what he's doing in the middle of the night. JONATHAN LEMIRE: Yeah, a few quick thoughts on this. First of all, that we've seen this happen with increasing frequency, you know, the president dozing off, it would appear, in public, in the Oval Office, even when he's being lavished with praise. We have seen the White House try to explain that. In fact, I believe that exact moment triggered a tweet from the communications director saying he was blinking, you moron, to the reporter who pointed out that it looked like he was asleep.  That same communications director, that night that Secretary Rubio was mentioning there during the Iran meetings that they had at the White House, you know, almost like a point of pride saying the President of the United States is in the Oval Office, working for the American people at six PM, and then again later at nine PM.  It's like, well, yeah, that's what presidents do! -- particularly at a time of war. And Willie, it seems this is an odd thing to boast about when we do well know we have seen, you know, a couple times in the last week, Trump stay up till all hours of the night posting AI slop and ridiculous memes on Truth Social. So yeah, he's up late doing that. But I think it's a fair line of inquiry to note, the guy turns eighty in less than two weeks. He was just at Walter Reed again for a physical. There are questions about his health, and his ability to do the job. That is fair game right now.

Hours after President Trump unloaded on her Wednesday afternoon as “a corrupt reporter” who “never smiles” and her network as “crooked as hell” and “very corrupt,” CNN chief White House correspondent and The Source host Kaitlan Collins proved the President’s point about her turnabout from “conservative” to liberal media darling by battling Republican Congressman Mike Lawler of New York. Discussing the status of Trump’s “anti-weaponization fund” to benefit those who believe they’ve been targeted unfairly by the federal government (which Collins had asked Trump about when the takedown took place), Lawler explained that while he wasn’t necessarily a supporter, “[t]here’s no question, by the way, that weaponization did occur under the Biden administration” as, for example, “[t]he Department of Justice call[ed] parents domestic terrorists for simply attending a school board meeting.”   “So, there’s no question that people were targeted by the Biden administration, and they should avail themselves of the legal process,” he added. That was all it took for the former conservative to make a ridiculous left-wing analogy: “Hunter Biden might agree with you. He was prosecuted, of course, by his dad's own Justice Department.” Lawler hit back with the obvious: “Yes, for crimes — for crimes that he — for crimes that he committed, Kaitlin. The Justice Department was not weaponized against Hunter Biden.” Collins, needing a life preserver, turned to the left's favorite talking point of all: “Hold on. January 6 people, you're saying they didn't commit those crimes? They're on camera. [CHUCKLES] They did commit the crimes.” Lawler fired back by making clear there is a world in which someone could believe both were wrong: “Kaitlin, respectfully, I've always said January 6 was wrong. I've always said that anybody that committed an act of violence on January 6th should be prosecuted. You threw Hunter Biden into the mix, trying to conflate all these things. Hunter Biden committed multiple crimes, including tax evasion, and had illegal possession of a gun. That's why he was prosecuted.” Ouch! Then Collins mistakenly prolonged this debate: COLLINS: Yeah. And the January 6 people were prosecuted because they rioted at the Capitol — LAWLER: Right. COLLINS: — and violated, I'm just saying — LAWLER: — and — and those — COLLINS: — I'm just saying that, when you're talking about weaponization — LAWLER: — those that violently — those that violently acted on January 6th and assaulted police officers, in my opinion, were rightly prosecuted. COLLINS: Right. LAWLER: There are others that were prosecuted on January 6th that should not have been, and that is an individual case-by-case basis.  Collins then shifted to Trump's settlement with the IRS:     COLLINS: Do you support the fact that the addendum to that whole agreement that says the IRS can't audit the President or his family for past tax issues, that still stands. Are you okay with that? LAWLER: There is no question that the IRS, there was a situation there — where there was an illegal leak of the President's tax returns, and he filed a claim, which he certainly has the right to do when the government is weaponized against him. From that vantage point of looking back at his tax — taxes from years or decades back, no, I don't have a problem with that stand. Collins kept pressing, and she would again make Trump's earlier point about her by leaning wholly into the corrupt world of The Swamp and refusing to entertain even the slightest notion of Washington agencies unjustly targeting anyone: COLLINS: So, you're okay with him having immunity for those past audits? LAWLER: Yeah, well — COLLINS: Because every president gets audited pretty much. LAWLER: — they were previously — they were previously audited, and they didn't find anything. So, obviously, there's nothing really to review going backward, and the fact is — COLLINS: I don't think we know if that's true though — LAWLER: — the fact is — COLLINS: — that they didn't find anything. LAWLER: — well, you certainly don't know that they did. And the fact is, if they did, the Biden administration, as we saw, would have tried to prosecute him on that if there was something there. One might think that following her experience in the Oval Office earlier that day, Collins would have gone out of her way to try to prove Trump wrong. Instead, she seemed to have been trying to do the opposite.

St. Paul City Attorney Irene Kao is refusing to charge the anti-law-enforcement mob that invaded and disrupted service at Cities Church in Minnesota on January 18, drawing harsh criticism – and a warning of the consequences of her decision for people of all faiths – from the church’s pastor. Thirty-nine people, including ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon, were arrested for disrupting service at Cities Church in January because they thought one of the church’s pastors was working with the local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office’s efforts to take illegal aliens into custody. But, on Tuesday, City Attorney Kao announced that the agitators would not be prosecuted because the “evidence is insufficient” – even though the incident was caught on camera. Don Lemon livestreamed both the church invasion and his “reconnaissance” report to the mob beforehand, The New York Post reports: “‘They’re planning an operation we’re going to follow them on. I can’t tell you exactly what they’re doing, but it’s called Operation Pull-Up,’ he [Lemon] said in the stream. “‘So that’s what we’re doing here, and after we do this operation, you’ll see it live, these operations are surprise operations. Again, I can’t tell you where they’re going,’ he said, indicating he was very much a part of the demonstration despite his protestations he was only covering it as a reporter.” “The right to peacefully protest is protected, as is the right to exercise one’s religious beliefs,” Kao wrote in her statement, attempting to rationalize her decision not to prosecute the agitators. Kao also suggested that didn’t prosecute those who disrupted the church service because there was no violence, property damage or threats: “However, acts of violence, property destruction, or threats to public safety – none of which occurred here – remain serious concerns and will be prosecuted when supported by admissible evidence.” “Just because the agitators didn’t break any windows doesn’t mean they didn’t break the law,” True North Legal General Counsel Renee Carlson, representing the church and pastor, responded in a statement: “The City Attorney's assurance that the rights of religious people in St. Paul are protected means nothing when the governing authorities charged with enforcing those protections refuse to uphold the law.” “The St. Paul City Attorney’s decision treats the church like it’s a public sidewalk – as if the sanctuary were an open forum that anyone may seize mid-service, rather than private property where a congregation has the right to worship undisturbed,” Director of Litigation Doug Wardlow added, warning that Kao is giving the green light to politically-favored lawbreaking: “[T]he City Attorney’s office sends an unmistakable signal: the law will bend for those whose cause aligns with the politics of those in power.” Minnesota officials and liberal politicians have been vehemently opposing enforcement of federal immigration laws in their state. All religious institutions are threatened by Kao’s legal rationale, Pastor Parnell warned in a statement: “According to the St. Paul City Attorney’s logic, it is perfectly fine for agitators to invade a mosque, a cathedral, or a temple, intimidate the families and children inside, and shut down their religious gathering. Just call it a ‘protest.’” While the agitators will not be prosecuted on the state level, they still face federal civil rights charges brought by the U.S. Justice Department for "Conspiracy Against Right of Religious Freedom at Place of Worship," and "Injure, Intimidate, and Interfere with Exercise of Right of Religious Freedom at Place of Worship."

Thursday was author and podcaster Kara Swisher’s last day filling in for co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View and she went out with some sparks. Swisher clashed with co-host Sunny Hostin on the role of White House beat reporters when one of their own was directly called out and insulted by President Trump. Hostin wanted a swift and stern confront, while Swisher argued for reporters not making themselves part of the story like that. Spurred on by another contentious interaction between Trump and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in the Oval Office, Hostin was upset that Trump singled out Collins for not smiling. “By the way, the other reporters weren't smiling. The men weren't smiling. He didn't mention that,” she chided. Hostin proclaimed she took “a bit of umbrage at the other reporters” in the room, particularly the men for not being her white knight and riding to Collins’ rescue. “When one of your colleagues is attacked in that way, a follow-up question should have been or a statement, someone in the room, maybe one of the men should have said, 'sir, you should not speak to her that way,’” she whined. “I would have liked to have seen that,” she added. Swisher disagreed, arguing that it’s not a reporter’s job to “react to that kind of nonsense”: SWISHER: I'm going to disagree with you because I think the job of reporters is not to react to that kind of nonsense. Right? The story -- the whole thing is when you're a reporter, the story shouldn't be about you. And when it is, it's a mistake. HOSTIN: That is true. SARA HAINES: When you're a good reporter. SWISHER: When you're a good reporter. [Laughter] Well yeah, that's fair.   Sunny Hostin and Kara Swisher cat fight over the press confronting Trump of criticizing reporters: SUNNY HOSTIN: But I also take a bit of umbrage at the other reporters there because - By the way, the other reporters weren't smiling. The men weren't smiling. He didn't mention… pic.twitter.com/ixAtsWOLQ8 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) June 4, 2026   “And I thought she handled it well. She has to be absolutely -- she made a joke about Alabama which is fantastic,” she added. “But the minute you say something, you get dragged into it in a way that he benefits and you don't.” That didn’t sit well with Hostin, who proceeded to have slightly heated back and forth with Swisher where she insisted that reporters needed to constantly be in Trump’s face: HOSTIN: What about the other reporters, do you think that maybe they should have said - SWISHER: No, nobody should say anything. HOSTIN: Because I think this administration is so aberrant, I think they are so - it's just such an abnormal situation. I don't know that you play by the rules that we used to play by. SWISHER: Because that becomes the story then, the fight between him and her. HOSITN: Although, it's already the story. SWISHER: No, it's not because she then asked a question. By the way, what was really interesting is she hadn't asked a question. HOSTIN: She had not. To drive the point home that reporters shouldn’t be adversarial to Trump in the moment, Swisher commended Collins for keeping her cool and getting “news” from Trump. “But she then got in a question in about the slush fund and then he answered in a very different way from Todd Blanche. She got what she needed which was the news. She got the news,” she said. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View June 4, 2026 11:05:06 a.m. Eastern (…) SUNNY HOSTIN: But I also take a bit of umbrage at the other reporters there because - By the way, the other reporters weren't smiling. The men weren't smiling. He didn't mention that. But I do feel that when you -- when one of your colleagues is attacked in that way, a follow-up question should have been or a statement, someone in the room, maybe one of the men should have said, 'sir, you should not speak to her that way.' I would have liked to have seen that. [Applause] KARA SWISHER: I'm going to disagree with you because I think the job of reporters is not to react to that kind of nonsense. Right? The story -- the whole thing is when you're a reporter, the story shouldn't be about you. And when it is, it's a mistake. HOSTIN: That is true. SARA HAINES: When you're a good reporter. SWISHER: When you're a good reporter. [Laughter] Well yeah, that's fair. But it's really hard. I mean, one of the things, I know Kaitlan really well. He attacks Maggie Haberman, a whole bunch of people I know really well. And to react is the really -- is where you lose in that game because with these people everything -- every accusation is a confession, so what he is saying is about him and not about her. And I thought she handled it well. She has to be absolutely -- she made a joke about Alabama which is fantastic. But the minute you say something, you get dragged into it in a way that he benefits and you don't. HOSTIN: What about the other reporters, do you think that maybe they should have said - SWISHER: No, nobody should say anything. HOSTIN: Because I think this administration is so aberrant, I think they are so - it's just such an abnormal situation. I don't know that you play by the rules that we used to play by. SWISHER: Because that becomes the story then, the fight between him and her. HOSITN: Although, it's already the story. SWISHER: No, it's not because she then asked a question. By the way, what was really interesting is she hadn't asked a question. HOSTIN: She had not. SWISHER: But she then got in a question in about the slush fund and then he answered in a very different way from Todd Blanche. She got what she needed which was the news. She got the news. (…)