Monica Paige: Media Bias EXPOSED: White House Insider's Take | DSH #1491

Summary

Digital Social Hour #1491: Monica Paige - "Media Bias EXPOSED: White House Insider’s Take"

Main Theme & Purpose

In this episode, host Sean Kelly sits down with Monica Paige, White House correspondent for Turning Point USA, to discuss her firsthand experiences as a journalist covering both the Biden and Trump administrations. The conversation dives into topics like media bias, access to the White House, transparency differences between the administrations, and the pressure on reporters to ask meaningful questions. Monica shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes, reflects on the challenge of investigative journalism in today’s political climate, and comments on headline issues like the handling of the Epstein list.

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1. Media Bias and White House Access

• Monica opens by highlighting the hypocrisy in the coverage of both major parties’ treatments of the press:
  • "People want to say, oh, Trump banned the AP. Okay. But Joe Biden banned the New York Post from multiple events and we don't talk about that." (Monica, 00:41)
• She explains the differences in how the media treats administrations and access they are given.
• Notably, she asserts that the Trump administration limited Associated Press access "because they didn't deserve it, quite frankly...they don’t want to tell the truth." (Monica, 00:49)

Notable Quote:
“They’re probably looking for gotcha moments.” (Sean Kelly, 00:59)

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2. Life as a White House Correspondent

A Day in the Life

• Monica describes the constant unpredictability and pressures of being on the White House beat:
  • "There is never a dull moment. There's something going on every single day...Even if there's one event...that's not the only thing that's going to be happening. So it's always good to show up every single day at like 9am. You never know what's going to happen." (Monica, 01:17)
• She shares that sometimes events are added last minute or surprise press conferences occur.

Differences Between Biden and Trump Administrations

• Monica reflects on her coverage of both presidents:
  • "I have been at the White House just about two years now...the last administration, we never saw Joe Biden. Really never." (Monica, 04:02)
• She describes President Biden as highly managed:
  • "You never see him walking up by himself, Never speaking off the cuff...masked face, garbled speech, stiffened gait." (Monica, 04:25)

Notable Quote:
"And I was looking at him, and he was just caked in makeup. And people don't really believe me when I say this...when you see him in person, it's masked face, garbled speech, stiffened gait. These are all signs that something is wrong." (Monica, 04:25)

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3. The Viral "I Was the Hunted, Now I’m the Hunter" Trump Clip

• Monica shares the story behind a viral video where President Trump makes the "I was the hunted, now I'm the hunter" remark on the South Lawn.
  • She explains that spontaneous exchanges yield the best soundbites and recalls her first time in the Oval Office as a formative experience.
    (Monica, 01:51–03:54)

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4. Administration Transparency and the Press

Biden’s Approach:

• Monica criticizes the Biden administration for orchestration and lack of transparency:
  • "It was all so orchestrated. Walking out with staff members...never speaking off the cuff." (Monica, 04:25)
• She claims the White House strictly controlled the President’s messages and access to journalists.

Trump’s Approach:

• By contrast, Monica believes the Trump administration allowed for more candid interactions and tougher questions from the press.

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5. The Press Room: Tactics and Challenges

• Monica shares how she formulates questions for the press secretary, crediting Charlie Kirk’s social media and podcast as inspiration:
  • "I kind of use his social media and maybe his show as to kind of what he's passionate about..." (Monica, 07:41)
• She underscores the challenge of getting questions in and the strategy required:
  • "If some...you ask a question in the press briefing room...Sometimes you'll move on to the next person...There is a very interesting tactic that you have to use to make sure you get a second question in..." (Monica, 09:23)

Notable Quote:
"You know that you're doing the job American people want you to. So it's very fulfilling." (Monica, 09:39)

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6. The Epstein Client List Controversy (10:10–13:02)

• Sean and Monica address public frustration over the administration’s handling of the Epstein list.
• Monica notes, "The President himself never fully promised we will release a list of the Epstein clients...When you have an administration that...wasn't prepared for the pushback of the American people, I think that's where you fall into some kind of dangerous territory." (Monica, 11:09)
• She criticizes over-promising and lack of transparency by officials and cautions about the dangers of "trial by media" for those merely associated with Epstein:
  • "Just because you were in the same company as him doesn't necessarily mean that you were involved in sex crimes." (Monica, 12:25)

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7. Community & Closing Thoughts

• Monica calls for more accountability and transparency from the press and government.
• She urges listeners to proceed with caution regarding publicizing names, given how fast public condemnation can spiral.

Memorable Closing Exchange:

• "Thank you so much. You can find me on X and on Instagram @monicapage TV. And I really appreciate whatever, you know, I can do to help, and I appreciate you sharing my voice as well on your platform." (Monica, 13:05)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:41: Monica on media bias and banned outlets
• 01:17: Daily life at the White House; unpredictability
• 03:54: Viral Trump Oval Office story
• 04:02: Differences in access/visibility between presidents
• 07:41: Leveraging Charlie Kirk’s topics for her interviews
• 09:39: Tactics for getting questions answered in the press room
• 11:09: Epstein client list, promises, and political fallout
• 12:25: Nuance on guilt by association in the Epstein case
• 13:05: Monica’s social accounts & signoff

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Summary Takeaways

• Monica Paige provides an insider’s perspective on the shifting nature of White House press access and administration transparency.
• She believes media bias manifests as differential treatment of presidents and selective outrage over press restrictions.
• Monica explains the difficulty of being a strategic, impactful journalist in a climate where both administrations have manipulated access and messaging, but in very different styles.
• The episode closes with a discussion of the delicate handling required for hot-button issues like the Epstein client list, spotlighting the tension between public demand for transparency and the risk of unjust public shaming.

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For more from Monica Paige, follow her on X and Instagram @monicapageTV.

Transcript

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[Monica Page]

Want to say, oh, Trump banned the ap. Okay. But Joe Biden banned the New York Post from multiple events and we don't talk about that.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Monica Page]

And the reason why the Trump administration kind of didn't give the AP as much access as they were previously having is because they didn't deserve it, quite frankly. They don't want to tell the truth.

[Sean Kelly]

They were probably looking for gotcha moments.

[Monica Page]

Yeah. Foreign.

[Sean Kelly]

Okay, guys, Monica Page, here we are at Student Action Summit. White House correspondent for Turning Point usa.

[Monica Page]

Thanks so much, Sean.

[Sean Kelly]

How's it been at the White House lately?

[Monica Page]

It's been so busy. There is never a dull moment. There's something going on every single day. And what's funny is that sometimes we'll get the schedule the night before, we'll get it super late as to look ahead as to what's going on the next day. And even if there's one event happening that's maybe closed off to the press, you know, that's not the only thing that's going to be happening. So it's always good to show up every single day at like 9am you never know what's going to happen. Even though the President has one thing happening, he could have something else at 3pm randomly he wants to hold a press conference. Yeah, we're all going in. So it's, it's very exciting.

[Sean Kelly]

How I came across you was that viral clip, you probably know which one I'm talking about where he said you asked great questions.

[Monica Page]

Yeah.

[Sean Kelly]

And as an interviewer, I took note of that. That's not a good skill to have.

[Monica Page]

You know, I appreciate that. And what's so interesting is that when you hear some of these questions that are in the press briefing room or the Oval Office from these, you know, so called reporters and journalists, they want to highlight constantly in this administration the negative. And that's one of the biggest differences that I realize and notice between the last administration and this current one is the questions that the press asks not Only was it softball questions under Joe Biden, but it was. I don't know, it was more like, oh, how is the President dealing with all this success in this? And when I was listening to those questions, I was so confused as to what made them generate that question. What gave them the idea that there was so much success under the Biden administration. Right. And it was really confusing to hear that. And now in this administration, it's like, oh, what do you. How do you respond to the criticism and all this? You know, a lot of people are saying that this alligator Alcatraz is inhumane. You know, aren't you concerned about the conditions of these illegal aliens? And I. When I hear that, it's like, you would never have asked Joe Biden any of those kinds of questions. So it's so funny that you mentioned this meeting, that meeting him and being in that space came so randomly. That was the same day that the President put up the South Lawn flagpole, that giant flagpole. And we were talking to him that same morning on the South Lawn, and it was talking to the President like we are right now, being as close to him as. And I said, hey, Mr. President, what gave you the idea to do this? And that was on the South Lawn. And he said, you know, I've always had an idea to do this, but you guys were coming after me in the media. And then he said, I was the hunted, now I'm the hunter. And that was that clip. That was that sound bite. And then fast forward later in the Oval Office hosting one of the FIFA World cup champions or one of those players, the teams in the Oval Office. And I asked him about those border numbers because they were record good. And I didn't say record good because I didn't want to, you know, be a partisan. But the President himself said, yeah, they're record good numbers. It was. I believe I forget what the number was for the month of May, but I wanted to ask him about it, and he's like, I like you. Who are you with? And that's. That's how that happened. But that was my first time in the Oval Office. That was my first.

[Sean Kelly]

First time.

[Monica Page]

That was the first.

[Sean Kelly]

Wow. Good first impression, huh?

[Monica Page]

I would say so.

[Sean Kelly]

Talk about leaving a good first impression.

[Monica Page]

Hoping there's more to come.

[Sean Kelly]

I love that. So night and day difference with him and Biden.

[Monica Page]

Completely. Completely. And I have been at the White House just about two years now. So I covered the last administration for a year and a half, and of course, we're at six months now with this current president and the last administration, we never saw Joe Biden. Really never. And what's so funny is when we would see Joe Biden, I would go to every event, whether that was the president's leaving to go on a trip somewhere.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Monica Page]

And we're coming back from a trip somewhere. I always made sure to be there and get the best spot. Whether that was because I. I was fascinated by that president. I was fascinated by his mannerisms, how he looked, the things that he would say. You know, maybe saying the quiet part out loud because, you know, when you get old in age, you just start saying things and you don't really pay attention to what you're saying. And he would do that. So we were on the South Lawn once. I think we were in the Rose Garden for some farewell address the president was giving Joe Biden. And I was looking at him, and he was just caked in makeup. And people don't really believe me when I say this. And I'm like, when you look at him at a closer perspective, the cameras just don't do it justice. When you see him in person, it's masked face, garbled speech, stiffened gait. These are all signs that something is wrong. And when you physically look at him in person, you can see the layers of makeup. It looks plastic, it looks leathery. It doesn't look natural. And I'm not gonna, like, jump into conspiracies because that's not my job, but it really makes you question, what were they doing to this guy? And it was all so orchestrated. Walking out with staff members. You never see him walking up by himself, Never speaking off the cuff.

[Sean Kelly]

Wow.

[Monica Page]

There were a lot of moments that really made me say, we gotta look into this. And anybody who says differently.

[Sean Kelly]

All right, guys, Sean Kelly here, host of the Digital Social Hour podcast, just filmed 33amazing episodes at Student Action Summit. Shout out to Code Health, you know, sponsor these episodes. But also I took them before filming each day. Felt amazing. Just filmed 20 episodes straight, and I'm not even tired, honestly. Much like this, where it's just based off, you know, the code, the codes that are in the saline solution. Code Health has been awesome.

[Monica Page]

Feel the drop and go code yourself. This administration is seriously gypping the American people.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah. It makes you wonder who was calling the shots when he was president, too.

[Monica Page]

It really does. And you can. You can list out a bunch of names in the administration who is controlling the autopen xyz, but I think it goes deeper than that. I really do. And I have a. I don't know what that's not based on. It's just a gut feeling. Yeah.

[Sean Kelly]

Woman's intuition is a pretty accurate thing I've noticed in my life.

[Monica Page]

And even. And you come out, you see the former press secretary, Karine Jean Pierre, now she wants to be an independent. Now she wants to write a book. All right. Come on. You know what I mean? It's like you played at the. One of the biggest roles in scamming the American people.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Monica Page]

And people should never forget that. We should never forget how much they lied to us when it came to who was running the country. And just the way that he treated everybody, like, not only treated American people, but treated the press, too. And it's funny, because this administration, you know, people want to say, oh, Trump banned the ap, okay, But Joe Biden banned the New York Post from multiple events, and we don't talk about that.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Monica Page]

And the reason why the Trump administration kind of didn't give the AP as much access as they were previously having is because they didn't deserve it, quite frankly. You're not going to tell the truth. You're not going to call things for what this administration calls them. You know, it's the Gulf of America, or, you know, let's report factual information about these ongoing legal cases that the President is constantly going through. They don't want to tell the truth.

[Sean Kelly]

They're probably looking for gotcha moments.

[Monica Page]

Yeah. And that's what this. That's what this press does. And I'm very excited to see, hopefully, more shakeups in the press briefing room.

[Sean Kelly]

What's it been like working with Charlie Kirk? What have you learned from him?

[Monica Page]

You know, he is so. He's such like a. An anchor towards what we're doing. And it's how I formulate a lot of my questions in the press briefing room. I always look at, like, let's see what Charlie wants to talk about. I'll go to his social media page, because there are times where there are so many questions that I could ask, there are so many things that I could report on, but I kind of use his social media and maybe his show as to kind of what he's passionate about and how can I do my job. And for our audience to kind of hone in on that and get a White House perspective on that. Because Charlie's audience ranges. I mean, it's not only the younger generation, but you have people spanning anywhere between the 25, 35, 35, 45, 50 that are really grabbing onto what Charlie's doing and see inspiration in that. And I'm like, how can I be an asset from my post here at the White House? Because we are in such a unique spot where we have not only access to more information with this White House and have more transparency with information that I'm able to use, that I'm able to use. The lower press team, the comms department, hey, we're really interested in the home buying market because how are young people going to buy a home in this new economy and in this administration? They'll print out all these different kinds of factual information from citing all these different sources, you know, from business accounts and all. And it was so interesting to see the information that they give me comparing the Trump 2016 to now and how he's using those Trump tax cuts and all those from 2017 into how he's doing his current economic vision. And it's, it's definitely how I like to use Charlie, as, I guess how I can better my platform and better the platform just from the White House perspective.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah, that's a smart strategy because you only have one or two questions. Right. So you got to be really.

[Monica Page]

Yeah.

[Sean Kelly]

Strategic with them.

[Monica Page]

2. If that. Because sometimes, if some. You ask a question in the press briefing room, I say, yeah, I have two. Sometimes you'll move on to the next person or it's, it's not easy. There is a very interesting tactic that you have to use to make sure you get a second question in whether that's kind of interrupting during the last couple seconds.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah, smart.

[Monica Page]

Yeah, it's. It's not easy, but it's so worth it to be in there and you know that you're doing the job of the American people want you to. So it's very fulfilling.

[Sean Kelly]

Now, the viral clip of Trump reacting to that Epstein question, were you there during that?

[Monica Page]

I wasn't.

[Sean Kelly]

Oh, you were.

[Monica Page]

But that was a New York Post question. I really like that reporter that asked that. He, Stephen Nelson, he's a really good, he's a very good colleague and like a very nice acquaintance of mine. And he didn't mean any ill intention. Yeah, many, many people are talking about it.

[Sean Kelly]

I was going to ask you if there was build up to that because obviously when you see the clip, it looks like he just popped off for no reason.

[Monica Page]

Well, I appreciate you asking this because not many people are talking about the mood on the ground at the White House right now. And there are. It does feel a little tense. It does feel like the elephant in the room. It feels like people want to talk about other things of Course, other reporters want to focus on maybe the deportations and all that kind of stuff there. I mean, the President wants to highlight his successes and I don't blame him because there's so many like incredible things he's doing with the economy and immigration and xyz. The one big beautiful bill.

[Sean Kelly]

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[Monica Page]

But this is on the table. And what I think is that the President himself never fully promised we will release a list of the Epstein clients. He never said that. But when you have an administration that I don't think was prepared for the pushback of the American people, I think that's where you fall into some kind of dangerous territory. And I think that the specific people that are in charge of this need to do some kind of damage control.

[Sean Kelly]

Right.

[Monica Page]

I don't think that's the President's job. I think it's the administration's job and you shouldn't have led on with such a big promise that you can't really fulfill.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Monica Page]

And that's how I feel about it because I don't think this is on President Trump. I think this is on the people in charge of this specific sector.

[Sean Kelly]

It's the most divisive issue I think I've seen on the right in my whole life.

[Monica Page]

I think this is going to divide the base. And I hate to say that, but there needs to be a common issue that brings us back together here and whether that's maybe Bondi hosting a briefing and giving the people what they want and being completely transparent. But at this point, can you really do that? Will the people believe you at this point? Have we, Are we so far gone?

[Sean Kelly]

I think she has one more chance. Maybe if she messes up again, I don't know.

[Monica Page]

You know, I know. And it's so interesting because some people are like, oh, I don't care what she says at this point, like I'm, I'm done. Fire her.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Monica Page]

And some people are like, well, maybe there's more to this because Bill O'Reilly had said that there are probably names on there that have talked to Jeffrey Epstein maybe once or twice. And if their names are on there, the audience and the public will completely maul that person and try to destroy that person's life. And it's like, well, just because you were in the same company as him doesn't necessarily mean that you were involved in sex crimes.

[Sean Kelly]

Right. There's a difference.

[Monica Page]

There's a huge difference. And that's where there's a lot of gray area. And the media is so unforgiving and the public is so unforgiving that any sort of name that the first thing that comes out there, everyone's going to jump on that and latch onto that. So they need to proceed with caution with whatever they do.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Monica Page]

And however they decide to handle this.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah. Monica, thanks for your time. Where could people support you online?

[Monica Page]

Thank you so much. You can find me on X and on Instagram @monicapage TV. And I really appreciate whatever, you know, I can do to help, and I appreciate you sharing my voice as well on your platform.

[Sean Kelly]

Yep. Thanks for your time. Thank you for watching, guys. Peace.

[Monica Page]

Sam.