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

Summary

Below is a detailed summary of the Digital Social Hour episode “Monica Paige: Media Bias EXPOSED: White House Insider's Take | DSH #1491” hosted by Sean Kelly (released August 14, 2025). The episode features Monica Paige—a White House correspondent for Turning Point USA—offering her insider perspective on media bias, press access, and behind‐the‐scenes happenings at the White House. The conversation spans several key topics, from comparing how previous administrations handled press relations to discussing the strategic formulation of questions and the evolving role of media in today’s political landscape.

──────────────────────────────

1. Episode Overview
   ────────────────────────────── • Main Theme:
    – Monica Paige delves into her experiences in the White House press room, comparing the approaches of the Trump and Biden administrations toward the media.
    – The discussion centers on perceived media bias, the selective access granted to news organizations, and the tactics used by reporters and administration officials alike.

• Purpose:
 – Provide listeners with a firsthand account of the inner workings at the White House.
 – Examine how different administrations handle press access and manage narratives.
 – Highlight the strategic methods used by both journalists and political figures during press briefings.

────────────────────────────── 2. Key Discussion Points and Insights
────────────────────────────── A. Media Access and Bias
 • [00:00 – 00:19] Monica starts by challenging common narratives, noting that while critics often cite Trump for banning outlets like the AP, she points out that Joe Biden also banned the New York Post from several events.
  – Quote [00:00]: “And you know, people want to say, oh, the Trump banned the ap. Okay. But Joe Biden banned the New York Post from multiple events and we don't talk about that.”
 • Insufficient access is attributed to perceived dishonesty and a failure to “tell the truth.” There’s criticism of how the media looks for “gotcha” moments rather than engaging in informed dialogue.

B. The White House Experience and Daily Hectic Schedule
 • [00:31 – 01:06] Monica describes the nonstop activity at the White House, emphasizing the unpredictability of the daily schedule.
  – She explains that events can change on a dime—sometimes even a new press conference is called later the same day.
 • This environment requires reporters to be present from early in the morning to capture every unfolding event.

C. Shifting Questioning Styles: Trump vs. Biden Administrations
 • [01:15 – 01:54] Monica contrasts the press questions asked under the previous Trump administration with those posed to the Biden team.
  – Under Biden, questions sometimes focus on celebrating success (e.g., discussing record numbers and economic wins), whereas the current administration faces more confrontational queries aimed at criticisms and controversial policies (e.g., discussions on immigration and detention conditions).
 – She points out the stark difference, noting that the former administration would have never entertained questions critical of management practices and truthfulness in the same way.

D. Memorable Press Briefing Moments and Sound Bites
 • [03:13 – 03:20] Monica recounts her first experience interviewing in the Oval Office:
  – She recalls asking the President about a new flagpole on the South Lawn, to which he replied, “I was the hunted, now I'm the hunter.” This sound bite encapsulated the administration’s combative stance toward the media.
 • At [09:07 – 09:12], the discussion touches on the viral clip of President Trump reacting to an Epstein-related question. Although Monica wasn’t present at that moment, she gives credit to reporter Stephen Nelson for his handling of the situation.

E. Analysis on Press Strategy and Question Formulation
 • [08:37 – 08:59] Monica reveals her method for preparing questions using cues from figures like Charlie Kirk.
  – She follows his social media to gauge what issues resonate with the audience and then leverages her access at the White House to gather data and insights.
  – This strategic approach helps narrow down which questions to ask in a room where only one or two can be fielded.

F. Criticism of Public Promises and Handling of Sensitive Issues
 • [10:30 – 10:57] The episode shifts to discussing how the President handled promises, particularly regarding the release of a list of Epstein clients.
  – Monica warns that when an administration makes a sweeping promise it cannot fulfill, it opens the door for dangerous levels of public distrust and further controversy.
  – She clarifies that accountability lies with the administration officials managing that sector, not solely with the President.

G. The Broader Implications of Media and Administration Dynamics
 • [11:12 – 11:36] Monica speculates that the approach to handling controversial issues may further divide the political base.
  – She emphasizes the need for a unifying issue that can rebuild trust, though she remains skeptical about whether such a moment is still possible.
  – The conversation touches upon past controversies involving figures like former press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and remarks about political affiliations that have left lasting impressions on audiences.

────────────────────────────── 3. Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments
────────────────────────────── • “I was the hunted, now I'm the hunter.” [03:20]
 – This quote, delivered by the President during Monica's interview, highlights the shift from feeling besieged by the media to taking an offensive stance against criticism.

• “And you know, people want to say, oh, the Trump banned the ap... But Joe Biden banned the New York Post from multiple events and we don't talk about that.” [00:00]
 – Monica uses this comparison to underline what she sees as a double standard in how media privileges are granted or denied.

• Monica’s observation of Biden in person during a farewell event at the Rose Garden, describing his “masked face, garbled speech, stiffened gait” and the noticeable “layers of makeup” that made him appear unnatural. [03:45 – 04:54]
 – This personal account provides listeners with a vivid image of how Biden’s public appearance contrasts with his on-camera persona, fueling further debate.

• Insights on crafting strategic questions in the press briefing room, including the challenge and tactics of securing a second question opportunity [08:42 – 08:59].

────────────────────────────── 4. Timestamps of Important Segments
────────────────────────────── • [00:00 – 00:19]: Opening remarks on media bans—Trump’s AP vs. Biden’s New York Post exclusions.
• [00:31 – 01:06]: Description of the busy and unpredictable White House schedule.
• [01:15 – 01:54]: Contrast between questioning styles under past and current administrations.
• [03:13 – 03:20]: Monica’s first Oval Office experience and the notable “I was the hunted, now I’m the hunter” sound bite.
• [04:54 – 05:00]: Vivid portrayal of Biden’s physical appearance at a farewell event.
• [08:37 – 08:59]: Discussion on how Monica formulates her strategic questions using Charlie Kirk’s social media cues.
• [09:07 – 09:12]: Reference to the viral Trump clip regarding an Epstein-related question and acknowledgment of reporter Stephen Nelson.
• [10:30 – 10:57]: Debate on the President’s unfulfilled promise concerning the Epstein clients list.
• [11:12 – 11:36]: Conversation on the potential divisiveness of contentious political issues and the media’s role. • [12:25 – 12:36]: Monica shares her social media handles (X and Instagram: monicapagetv) and wraps up the discussion.

────────────────────────────── 5. Conclusion
────────────────────────────── • The episode provides a candid look inside the White House and reveals how media access, questioning techniques, and political promises are intertwined with ongoing narratives of transparency and bias.
• Monica Paige’s insights not only expose what she views as selective treatment by both the administration and the media but also challenge listeners to reconsider how political communication shapes public trust.
• Overall, the discussion leaves an open question about whether the current climate in the press room can ever foster a unified, trust-building dialogue in Washington.

This comprehensive and engaging summary should provide listeners—and those who haven’t tuned in—a clear understanding of the subjects discussed and the critical insights Monica Paige offered during this fascinating episode of Digital Social Hour.

Transcript

[A]

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

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

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.

[C]

They were probably looking for gotcha moments.

[A]

Yeah. Foreign.

[C]

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

[A]

Thanks so much, Sean.

[C]

How's it been at the White House lately?

[A]

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.

[C]

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. And as an interviewer I took note of that. That's a good skill to have.

[A]

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 even in 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.

[B]

Right.

[A]

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 flag pole. 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.

[C]

First time was the first.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

Good first impression, huh? I would say so talk about leaving a good first impression.

[A]

Hoping there's more to come.

[D]

I love that.

[C]

So night and day difference with him and Biden.

[A]

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 they. We would see Joe Biden, I would go to every event, whether that was the President's leaving to go on a trip somewhere.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

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 going to, 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.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

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

[C]

All right, guys, Sean Kelly here, host of the Digital Social Hour podcast, just.

[D]

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.

[C]

Felt amazing.

[D]

Just filmed 20 episodes. Substrate. And I'm not even tired, honestly. Much like this, where it's just based off, you know, the code, the codes.

[C]

That are in the saline solution.

[D]

Code Health has been awesome.

[A]

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

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

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

[A]

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.

[C]

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

[A]

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.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

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.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

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.

[C]

They're probably looking for gotcha moments.

[A]

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 breaking room.

[C]

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

[A]

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.

[C]

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

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Strategic with them.

[A]

2. If that. Because sometimes if some of 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.

[C]

Yeah, smart.

[A]

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.

[C]

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

[A]

I wasn't.

[B]

Oh, you were.

[A]

But that was a New York Post question. I really like that reporter that asked that, 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.

[C]

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.

[A]

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.

[C]

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[D]

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[C]

Go anywhere without it.

[A]

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.

[B]

Right.

[A]

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.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

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.

[C]

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

[A]

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?

[C]

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

[A]

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.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And 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.

[B]

Right.

[C]

There's a difference.

[A]

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 name 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.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And however they decide to handle this.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

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

[A]

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

[C]

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

[A]

Sam.