Former television news anchor Kari Lake, who serves as President Trump’s senior advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media (which includes Voice of America), complained on Piers Morgan Uncensored about what she characterized as “biased” journalists and newsrooms.
The former Arizona candidate, who launched unsuccessful bids for governor and senator, said: “We need to do a massive overhaul of the media right now. Wash out some of these people who just cannot push their hatred of President Trump aside.”
When asked what she meant by “wash out,” Lake replied, “Fire them.” Lake suggested that “we” should tell those fired employees, “We’re moving on and moving on in a different direction.”
Absolute bombshell. Senior Advisor Kari Lake openly demands a massive purge of the mainstream media. She calls for firing journalists who criticize Donald Trump, exposing the administration’s terrifying desire to completely control the press and eliminate dissenting voices. pic.twitter.com/yNDUmhDB4d
— Furkan Gözükara (@FurkanGozukara) April 27, 2026
[NOTE: The government cannot legally, directly fire employees of any private enterprise, and both government and private companies face limits on restricting employees’ political beliefs. The First Amendment also protects Americans’ (including journalists) freedom of speech. The Trump administration has largely applied pressure to the media through the FCC, led by Brendan Carr, which oversees broadcast licenses for major outlets like CBS and NBC.]
This week, after the feud between President Trump and late night host Jimmy Kimmel reignited (Trump said Kimmel should be fired after a joke he delivered that portrayed the First Lady as an “expectant widow”), the FCC ordered a review of ABC’s broadcast licenses, which it said was related to an investigation into ABC’s diversity and inclusion policies.
[NOTE: Piers Morgan, who has been friendly with President Trump in the past, might be subject to what Lake called a “wash out” of journalists, as he has recently criticized Trump’s strategy in Iran. Morgan said of Trump on BBC: “I think he’s thought that he could pull a Venezuela here, decapitate the leadership of Iran, and it would all get settled quite quickly. And I’d think two weeks in, what is very clear is this is not going to get settled quickly.”]
Morgan also pointed out: “All the mission statements he’s laid out have changed day by day, sometimes hour by hour. It was going to be regime change. It was after the nuclear capability, which we’d been assured only 10 months ago had been dismantled already.”