Wyoming’s senior U.S. Sen. John Barrasso had a golden opportunity to defend the constitutionally protected freedom of the press Sunday. Instead, he predictably launched into a feeble defense of President Donald Trump’s White House ban on three news organizations that have criticized him.
Opinion
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Barrasso compared Trump’s vindictive action against CNN, MS NOW and Politico to the president being banned from Twitter (now X) and Facebook during his first term.
“I didn’t see people come to his defense,” the senator said. “So, it goes both ways.”
I can’t believe Barrasso doesn’t recognize the difference between private corporations, which have the right to enforce their own rules for participating on their social media platforms, and the First Amendment’s mandate to allow the media to report the news without interference from the federal government.
Of course, he knows better. But Barrasso apparently views his job as the Senate’s majority whip, the chamber’s No. 2 leadership position, to defend whatever nonsense the president spouts no matter how much it lays waste to the guarantees enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
Throughout his 19 years in the Senate, Barrasso has been a frequent guest on cable TV news shows, including CNN and MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), whenever he wanted to express his views to a national audience. That usually included sticking it to the Democratic administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and bashing Trump’s critics.
It’s no secret to his constituents that one of Barrasso’s top priorities seems to be getting in front of TV cameras and next to powerful politicians. While climbing the GOP Senate leadership ladder, he always hovered over the shoulder of then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at news conferences.
“We all respect and value the freedom of the press, it’s in the Constitution,” Barrasso told NBC’s Kristen Welker, but it was just lip service from a politician who has adroitly used the media to get free air time.
If Barrasso truly values a free press, why won’t he even criticize Trump’s personal war against members of the media, whom he disturbingly calls “the enemy of the people?”
If Barrasso truly values a free press, why won’t he call out the president for threatening last Friday to revoke the White House press credentials of other news organizations as he sees fit, creating a climate of fear and intimidation?
“The press has an obligation to report fairly,” Barrasso told Welker. “The president doesn’t see it happening that way.”
No, Trump just brands everything that doesn’t show him in a favorable light as “fake news.” He has a particularly cruel way of trying to humiliate women reporters who are just doing their jobs when they ask Trump valid questions.
Like Welker, who saw Trump storm off her “Meet the Press” set in June when she asked a follow-up question after the president made an unsubstantiated claim about U.S. elections being rigged.
Trump called her “either crooked or stupid.”
When Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey asked about the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the president of the United States said, “Quiet, piggy.” Katie Rogers of The New York Times wrote an article about Trump’s age and health — perfectly reasonable topics about an 80-year-old commander-in-chief — and Trump lashed out, calling her a “third-rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.”
This is the guy Barrasso trusts to assess the fairness of journalists? And decide which news organizations have the right to ask him questions?
Trump has played this game of yanking White House media credentials before, and lost. After a contentious exchange at a news conference in 2018, the president revoked CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press pass to the White House grounds. CNN sued, and a Trump-appointed judge overturned the restriction.
“What’s going on here is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment,” Conor Fitzpatrick of the free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told The Washington Times. “The precedent on this point is clear.”
Barrasso was so at a loss for ammunition to back his argument on NBC, he resorted to pulling a 2020 campaign trope out of the mud: Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“When you take a look at this president, and you take a look at the Hunter Biden laptop,” he said, appearing confused, “if you want to really get into things where the press ignored the reality for a long period of time, said it was a Russian hoax.” Huh?
Then Barrasso abruptly summed up what seemed to be his main point: of course Republicans will win and stay in power.
“The bottom line on all of this is, this is not going to have an impact on an election 44 days from now,” he said. “People are going to go to the voting booth, they’re going to make a decision based on their life, their future, what they believe is best for them and their families.”
Barrasso said the choice is between “common sense Republicans and crazy Democrats.” He claimed Democrats are in “dire straits, as they’re even less popular than Republicans.”
Well, that’s a strange way to put it, since Barrasso admits that Republicans are unpopular. And it turns out to be fake news: A New York Times/Sienna poll last week showed that likely voters favored Democratic congressional candidates over Republicans by nearly 9 percentage points. It’s a metric, the New York Times reported, that is “closely watched by both parties as a leading indicator of political momentum.”
It appears Barrasso’s assessment of where this midterm election is going — which will largely determine Trump’s ability to get anything done in the next two years — is equal parts fake news and wishful thinking. That makes it, like his statements on Trump’s press ban, another example of Barrasso favoring the company line over the truth.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of two names: Conor Fitzpatrick and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. —Ed.
Barrasso, Lummis, Hagman. Proof that one out of three trump supporters are as dumb as the other two.
John Barrasso won his seat in Congress by winning a partisan loyalty contest. It’s no surprise that he’s blindly loyal to his party’s corrupt boss instead of to constituents. What’s insane is that Wyoming keeps returning him to the Senate. We should boot him out forthwith.
Senator Harris so has survived so long in politics by trading his conscience for a weather vane. He spends his time watching to see which way the wind is blowing then changing his stance to accommodate the wind. He likely will seek to have you think he was a liberal all along if the democrats win in 2026 and 2028.
Kerry, it looks like you really hit the nail on the head so to speak with your opinion piece. People of Wyoming need to get him out of office.. but that’s not gonna happen. The Trumper’s in the state, even though some of them are realizing the errors in their way ,will blindly vote him in.
They will very likely vote for Chuckee
and the hags. None of them have Wyoming interests in their skill set.
I want to go back to 1981 when I first met John Barrasso. He was a very intelligent, funny and helpful individual.
I met him when I was working for The Muscular Dystophy Association, and doing the Jerry Lewistelethon. He was pretty fresh out of medical school and was very dedicated to the medical profession. He helped cohost the telethons for many years. I heard he was a great doctor and a great orthopedic surgeon however, I’m not sure.
He should’ve stayed in that position and never got into politics because when he did in my opinion, it ruined him.
He has always wanted a spotlight
It is now getting the National Spotlight
It’s so sad to see someone’s career goes so far downhill because he has elected to follow Donnie boy.
He was born in Pennsylvania, his dad was a cement, finisher. I remember him telling me the story during the breaks of the telethon. He seemed like a very genuine individual. It just shows how politics and political corruption can make otherwise good individual go downhill.
So so sad that another one bites the dust
maybe a great guy at one time, too bad he turned into a spineless turncoat suckup to one of the most horrible people in the history of mankind. maybe Chump has some real nasty dirt on Barrasshole. i’m sure in secret that the Dr. laughs at all the hicks in Wyoming who vote for him simply because of the “R”
As long as money and propagandist media can control primary elections, Wyoming will be stuck with Republicans Like Barrasso, Hageman, Lummis, Cheney, etc.
It is a political machine/club and it makes the selection, “elections” are for appearances only.
And DC Democrat will never get traction anywhere in WY. but Teton county.
Wyoming voters sending Chuck and Harriet straight to the unemployment line in November might be the only medicine strong enough to shake Dr. Barrasso out of his vegetative state. I for one think that the poor creature has suffered enough.What do you say Wyoming???
Cautioned against intemperate language, I’ll try to be more technical: Compare Barrasso to a remora (also known as a “sucker fish”) which accompany sharks and eat their feces. Win a prize for a perfect match!
I’ll give you a prize for that comment Tom!! You’ve nailed Barrasso to a T.
This Wyoming delegation is the most ineffective one I can remember in my lifetime. It appears that all they care about is paying fealty to the Orange Deity, and not at all about representing Wyoming.
Brown nose Barrasso. He’s an embarrassment to Wyoming and his time will come to vote him out of his cushy job. Just because the president doesn’t like what the press says about him is not a reason to revoke credentials, that is pure Nazism. Sorry, trump that is truly going to turn around a bite you on your diaper covered ass.
As has been noted in other comments, Barrasso is a medical doctor, so we can assume he is highly educated and that, at least at some point in his career, he cared for the welfare of people. That leaves me to conclude that his sycophancy is a conscious and calculated decision to maintain and increase his grasp on political power, a much higher priority than the welfare of the people and the country. This, ultimately, is the mortal transgression of all those who have turned their backs on the facts, the glaringly obvious nature of this administration, and, perhaps most egregious of all, their own better angels. I wonder about the day when so-called leaders like Barrasso wake up and realize what they have done — to the people they were elected to represent, to the democracy they swore an oath to serve and protect, and to their own personal integrity. Not that I’m holding my breath.
Well put Richard.
You’re opinion boils people like Barrasso, Lummis, Hageman, Gray and many others down to a nutshell. Each one of them has sold their constituents and their country out in hopes of a brief period of recognition by a dangerously deranged individual who should have never been elected once let alone twice. Thanks again Richard for stating what should be more than obvious by now.
The more I deal with Doctors, especially those that are not General Practitioners, the more I realize they are just specialized mechanics that know one skill very well and that is it. They are not smart, just technically proficient in one area of the body.
Barrasso is technically proficient at working on the skeleton, but has the personality and intelligence of Skelator.
It would be great if Byrd got elected, then Wyoming would not have two nut jobs in the Senate.
https://emptywheel.net/2026/09/23/what-the-senate-might-look-like/
check his AMA rating.
I know I’m late in reading this article but I have to hand it to Kerry for getting to the truth of Bareasso’s motivations and Wyoming’s voters blindness to to his motivation. I worked as an R.N. on 4 center and had the pleasure of working with some of his patients. His interactions with patients, and nurses, was exemplary. I very much looked up to him. Sad to say I cannot do so today. It baffled me why one would leave a lucrative orthopedic practice to seek congressional seat. Now I see. Look at his total wealth then and now and it’s easy to see he followed the money. To disparage his practice as an orthopedic surgeon is a cheap shot and can only come from someone who did not know him then. It saddens me to see him now as a chumpie sycophant.
It is wonderful when an elected official has a spine and knows how to use it
Trump loves a turncoat, sellout, traitor etc., but I’ll bet you that his true inner circle, such as Chump Jr, that horrid son in law Jared, Ivanka & Co. laugh their asses off at brown nose Barrasso. What an incorrigible little man and why the good people of Wyoming continually send this two faced professional politician back to Washington is a mystery
Thanks again Kerry for spelling it out in plain English about how worthless John Barrasso has become as a representative for Wyoming…not that he was that great to begin with when he was appointed to take over for Craig Thomas when he passed away.
Barrasso’s only criteria is to follow and support the GOP line. And the GOP has acquiesced everything to Trump and MAGA. There are no standards, benchmarks, or moral guidelines that the GOP won’t change to meet the wims of Trump and MAGA. No matter if it’s legal, ethical, moral, or not. Everything is transactional.
Barrasso a good GOP soldier as he just does as he’s told. He will never question/disavow Trump or the GOP line no matter what he’s being asked to do or communicate. He’s a “yes man” with no moral or ethical standards. All the while he builds his personal wealth. He’s made millions while being in the senate for 20 years. EVERYTHING he does is WIIFM – what’s in it for me.
Many of us remember from the 90’s when Barrasso was on NPR giving his “Medical Minute With Dr. John Barrasso.” The irony of using NPR for getting his name recognized to where he is now is glaringly gross. Two faced at the least. Didn’t you take an oath as a Dr. to “do no harm” Senator Barrasso? You have broken your oath in more ways than I have time to list, and you have clearly made a bargain with the lies and corruption that surround you.
Barrasso is a feckless Trump cuck, #1 now that Lindsay Graham kicked the bucket. A disgraceful little weasel with a perpetual brown nose
Out of all Trump brown nose minions, is there a bigger ass kisser, suckup, sellout then Sen. Barasso? No, there isn’t. Quite the embarrassing little man but just look at him, a United States Senator. That’s on us
I’d vote for Mike Johnson at the top, but I’d vote for Barrasso up there with the other leading sellouts. He might get the silver or bronze. And WYO citizens have just kept re-electing him, as you said “that’s on us.”
Loyalty to his godfather always trumps (pun intended) Barrasso’s oath to uphold the constitution. It’s a worthwhile reflection on how Germany lost its soul by fearful support by those in power capable of stopping the takeover of a maniac autocrat. Thanks Kerry, for putting into words what happens when our own chosen congress people lose their soul just to curry favor from a president seemingly intent on destroying the US Democracy.
Good column, Kerry. It’s embarrassing but not surprising that the senator does not support freedom of the press when it comes to his sniveling loyalty to the most corrupt, grifting, damaging administration in history. But isn’t it nice that we can all now sit brain-dead and watch “Trump TV,” to get our heavy dose of lies and state propaganda?
Unfortunately, Barrasso is not on the ballot in November. But other toadies–Hageman, Gray–are. Vote for the First Amendment, people.
He is such a loser.
It’s truly embarrassing that a Wyoming senator is such a feckless eunuch.
Barrasso is an embarrassment, a Trump stooge if there ever was one. This is another Wyoming politician that needs to go back home. This is a doctor that voted to put RFK, an anti-vaxxer, in the position of United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. Think about that. Barrasso only thinks of his own political career, even when it’s bad for the health of Americans. What a disgrace.
John Barrasso is never going to quit Trumpy so get that idea out of your head. No matter what Trump does Barrasso will be there to defend him. By the way, with the decline of Mitch McConnell Barrasso has lost a bit of the photo opportunities he used to enjoy in the press. I always thought that Barrasso must have been surgically implanted on McConnell’s keister because anytime McConnell was at a microphone Barrasso was immediately behind him. Just an observation.
Since Senator Barrasso has repeatedly shown us that he puts party above country and the Constitution, let’s look to the future and find a competent, principled candidate who we can send to Washington in his place. PLEASE!