Jonathan Karl: Why Reporters Don’t Walk Out When Trump Insults Them

Brian Stelter asks: Why don’t they just walk out when they’re insulted? ABC White House correspondent Jonathan Karl, author of “Front Row at The Trump Show, says he gets asked that question often. “As reporters, our job is to be there,” he says. “The insults don’t matter. Who cares?” He says “we are there to try to get the facts and to put the questions to those who are in power in this country.”

STELTER: Right. He ends up insulting reporters, calling them names, including you and many others. A lot of viewers ask me, why don’t you just walk out when he insults you like that?

KARL: I get that question all the time. And we don’t walk out because that’s — our job is to cover these things, whether it’s me, whether it’s Kaitlan Collins, Jim Acosta, we are there to ask the hard questions of the president, of the administration.

You know, we can debate whether or not the briefings should be carried live. I mean, ABC, as a matter of course now, does not carry them live on the broadcast network, unless there’s going to be a major announcement that we know. I know CNN is not going gavel to gavel on these things anymore.

But as reporters, our job is to be there. The insults don’t matter. I mean, we get the — who cares? Who cares if the president is going to make personal attacks on us, the reporters in that room? We are there to try to get the facts and to put the questions to those who are in power in this country.

STELTER: You mentioned Kaitlan Collins. Let me ask you about the kerfuffle from the other day. Apparently, a White House aide asked Kaitlan to move from her spot near the front to the back row.

Tell us how these seats are actually assigned, because that’s basically your job as the head of the White House Correspondents Association, not the White House’s job.