WBT News Director Mark Garrison has been in the spotlight for his recent interview with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. He’s now defending his actions after pushback from the White House.
Garrison conducted a phone interview with Jean-Pierre ahead of President Biden’s visit to North Carolina. During the interview, he asked the Press Secretary if the President has dementia, stating the question was prompted by those who heard he would be speaking with Jean-Pierre.
In her response, she stated “I can’t even believe you’re asking me this question. It is incredibly insulting,” before asking Garrison for his next question. Later in the interview, she said “And with that, Mark, thank you so much. Have an amazing, amazing day,” and ended the call.
The White House alleges that WBT was given seven minutes to speak with Jean-Pierre, and the time was up. It also claims that the station edited in a dial tone for dramatic effect, arguing that its phones do not have dial tones when a call is ended.
Mark Garrison appeared on The Ingraham Angle on Fox News Wednesday to discuss the matter, and defended his actions.
“I knew — as you know, doing interviews through the years — you’re going to get a lot of talking points,” Garrison told Ingraham. “So I thought if I can just ask a couple of questions, maybe we’d make a little news, maybe get a sound bite out of her. I just decided to ask her about all the concern here in North Carolina. Even 45% of Democrats are concerned about Biden’s mental state, so I thought ‘Ok, I brought that up to her.’ She somewhat dismissed that. And then I just said, ‘Ok, well, does he have dementia?’ And I was surprised that she was so offended.”
Garrison added that Jean-Pierre sidestepped the question for a specific reason.
“What she did was take us down a bumpy dirt road, because she went on to say, ‘Well, every year, the White House physician examines the president and puts out a detailed report.’ Well, I went back and looked at all of those detail reports. It talks about his heartburn, it talks about his limp, it talks about his heart, it talks about his stomach, but there’s nothing in those reports about his mental capacity.”
When asked if he altered the audio to add a dial tone for dramatic effect, the WBT anchor shared his displeasure with the insinuation.
“To quote Karine, I’m offended that she would suggest that. We don’t add sound effects to news stories. When she hit the button to disconnect, we got a dial tone. We didn’t add any drama to it.”
He concluded by stating the he aired the unedited interview, despite what the White House claimed.
