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White House Press Credentials and the Best Convention Speeches: Jim Pfaff on The John Fredericks Show | Sep 22, 2026

Published: September 22, 2026
Network: The John Fredericks Show
Analysis: Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff

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John Fredericks came into the September 22, 2026 edition of The John Fredericks Show wanting one thing from his guest: a take on President Trump pulling the White House press credentials of CNN, MS NOW and Politico. Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff gave him one, starting with a caveat: he is not a fan of the move. He argued anyway that the networks have earned what they are getting, that the First Amendment does not guarantee anyone a place at the White House, and that a real alternative media is already being built. Then the two of them, with producer Dan weighing in from the board, spent the back half of the segment ranking the best and worst convention speeches since Barry Goldwater’s 1964 nomination at the Cow Palace.

Topics Covered

• The White House Press Credentials Fight
• The First Amendment Is Not a Seat in the White House
• Project Mockingbird and a Real Alternative Media
• Traditional Liberals, RFK Jr., and MAGA as America
• The Best Convention Speeches Since Goldwater
• The Worst Speeches, and the Best from the Democrats
• Key Takeaways

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The White House Press Credentials Fight

Fredericks set the scene. Since Friday afternoon, he said, when the president banned Politico, MS NOW and CNN from the White House grounds, he had been having a field day. The networks were doing their shows from the sidewalk outside the White House and dealing with their own anti-Trump protesters, and now, in his telling, everybody was talking solidarity — let’s not cover him — the same outlets, he said, that did not cover his speech to the nation because they did not like the content.

“Oh, cry me a river. Ask me if I care. Do you care? No. Does anybody care? No, nobody cares.”
— John Fredericks, Host, The John Fredericks Show

Pfaff started with the network NBC had already cut loose.

“MSNBC is such a crappy network that NBC chucked them. Now if NBC’s chucking you, you’re pretty, pretty, pretty bad.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Then came the qualification. “I’m not a fan of him doing this,” Pfaff said of the credentials decision. What he found instructive was the reaction — exactly the kind of thing Fredericks had been describing. These outlets, he said, believe they are so privileged that they have to be treated with honor and respect, when the honor belongs somewhere else.

“The respectful, honorable thing is the First Amendment, not them. Their use of the First Amendment is what makes them either bad or good. And they all suck. They really do suck as networks.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

He also read the politics of the moment. Donald Trump is very good at stirring the pot, Pfaff said, and at putting light on something that is really bad. Going into the election, he does not think the base has any problem with the president chucking it to MS NOW and CNN. Fredericks went further: he had been in Pennsylvania helping Stacy Garrity and kept hearing that the base is depressed. His answer was that you have to fire them up, and he could not think of anything that would do it more than kicking out three fake news networks.

The First Amendment Is Not a Seat in the White House

Pfaff’s central argument about the White House press credentials was a narrow one, and he stated it plainly.

“The First Amendment doesn’t give people a right to be in the White House and certain places.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

The outlets complaining loudest, he said, are the same group that would never have allowed the influencer community into the White House the way the Trump White House has. A Democrat administration would never have allowed it, and the media would have been on the administration’s side, because they want to shut out everybody else who has a right to use the First Amendment for those same privileges. In that sense, he said, the decision on White House press credentials does not bother him — even though he is not a fan of it.

Project Mockingbird and a Real Alternative Media

Pfaff reached back to Project Mockingbird, which he described as the CIA operation rooted out in the 1970s — the CIA trying to control corporate media so it would say certain things. His point was that today’s networks do not need one.

“These people are so obscene and absurd that I don’t think they need a freaking Project Mockingbird to do the stupid crap that they’re doing.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

For Pfaff, the White House press credentials fight points to a larger problem: communication in this country, and the answer is people on every side learning how to do media well — any podcaster or influencer, conservative or liberal. He gave credit where he thought it was due: even The Young Turks, who he said are really stupid in their ideas, built an alternative to the media. The right has begun doing the same thing effectively. Glenn Beck has done it very effectively, he said, and he told Fredericks his own operation has a little bit of something there too.

He also pointed to change inside the mainstream. What Bari Weiss is doing at CBS, he said, has been very interesting to watch, even if it is not yet perfect. When Scott Pelley was on his way out, people said the world was falling apart; Pfaff said 60 Minutes is doing just as well now as it ever did, and CBS in general is doing much better at putting news out there. Weiss is no conservative, he noted — she is a liberal. Fredericks finished the thought: she’s just not nuts.

“She’s just not nuts. That’s exactly right. We can have left and right media without nut jobs doing the stuff that they’re doing, like the Jim Acostas of the world, who is useless.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Traditional Liberals, RFK Jr., and MAGA as America

Fredericks turned to the liberals the two of them used to argue with, whom he called traditional, legitimate liberals because they loved the country. The debates then, he said, were about capital gains tax cuts — not opening the borders, government-run grocery stores and sanctuary cities. Pfaff added one item to the list: mutilating children. Fredericks named Fred Harris, Birch Bayh, Scoop Jackson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and asked the audience to imagine Moynihan dealing with Mamdani today. Pfaff, who is from Indiana, said he does not have much positive to say about Birch Bayh, but allowed that he was a traditional liberal. So were John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, he said — liberals whose policies he does not all share, but actual American patriots.

That led him to the GOP midterm convention in Dallas, which he and Fredericks watched together. He pointed to Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman introducing his fellow Pennsylvania senator, David McCormick — Fetterman, he said, is no conservative, has said himself he is not going to become a Republican, and will never stop being a liberal. And he pointed to RFK Jr., who he said gave one of the greatest political speeches he has ever heard in his life, from someone who grew up in the Reagan era hearing some of the greatest. TCC covered the week in Dallas closely, including our reaction to the Trump convention speech.

Pfaff’s reading is that President Trump has brought an American coalition together, not only a MAGA coalition, because people who are not MAGA adherents are generally supportive and he brings some of them on.

“When you look at the makeup of the MAGA movement, it is America. The Democrat Party does not reflect America at all.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

He pointed to the Islamists, communists and socialists winning Democrat primaries, and to the so-called middle-of-the-road traditionalists in that party not pushing back at all — that, he said, is the direction of their party. The argument tracks one TCC has made before, in why the Democrats are no longer an American party. The Republican Party, “notwithstanding idiots like John Thune,” is the American party right now, he said, filled with the most actual Americans — and he did not mean only white Americans. People calling MAGA a white nationalist movement, he said, are full of crap. It is people from a lot of backgrounds, many from different countries, who love what the United States stands for, believe, roughly, that the Constitution is great, and want to see the greatness of America return. The Democrats’ diversity, in his words, is a diverse set of communist socialists who want to destroy America — a useless diversity that is not good for the country.

The Best Convention Speeches Since Goldwater

Then Fredericks called the game: the three best convention speeches since Goldwater at the Cow Palace in 1964. He went first. His number one was the one they agreed on — RFK Jr. at the Dallas convention. His number two, which he warned would surprise Pfaff, was Georgia’s Democrat senator Zell Miller, who he said basically threw his whole party under the bus; Fredericks was not sure of the year. His number three was Jeane Kirkpatrick in 1984, calling Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro “the San Francisco Democrats” over and over, which he thinks was the end of their campaign.

Pfaff seconded Kirkpatrick — a great American patriot, he said, a former Democrat and newly minted Republican at the time, and one of the most brilliant women ever to serve in public office in an administration. He put RFK Jr. at number three and answered the objection that he was only reacting to a recent speech.

“I really do believe objectively, when you really analyze everything he said in that speech, it was not some shallow take on what’s going on. It really did recast what the American dream is founded upon, and that is individual liberty and respect for others, but courage against cowardice and courage against evil.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

His number one was the speech producer Dan had already put up on screen: Ronald Reagan at the 1976 convention. Gerald Ford won the nomination barely, Pfaff reminded listeners, and a lot of people forget how close Reagan came.

“He comes onto the floor and gives an amazing speech, stirs up the crowd, very respectfully tells them to back Jerry Ford. But everyone walked out of that room saying, oh no, we nominated the wrong guy.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

After going back and forth on his number two — cutting the list off at Goldwater, he noted, also cuts off some really good JFK speeches, and there has been a lot of lackluster material since — he settled on Kirkpatrick at two.

The Worst Speeches, and the Best from the Democrats

Worst Republican convention speech was next. Pfaff’s first guesses were one of George W. Bush’s and then Bob Dole’s. Fredericks agreed Dole’s San Diego speech was a bad one — he said Dole threw the teachers under the bus — and called it a tie with his real pick: the Pat Buchanan convention speech, from a candidate Fredericks said he had backed. In his account, it did nothing to unify anybody, talked about culture wars, and ran too long, and Reagan, who came after him, got up, looked at his watch, saw it was 10:10, and was angry.

“I have a lot of respect for Pat Buchanan, but I do agree with you on that speech. It was totally unnecessary. He should have made that speech in 1996 and then maybe got Bob Dole off the stage.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Pfaff said he was a Buchanan supporter in 1996 because Bob Dole was a nightmare, and that Jack Kemp should have been the nominee on that ticket — an amazing patriot, a great speechmaker, one of the great political thinkers, and the giver of a pretty good convention speech himself. Fredericks said it had too many footballs being tossed around. The host also sided with Dan on two more: Ted Cruz in 2016, who told delegates to vote their conscience, and Bill Clinton’s 1988 speech, where the crowd cheered when he said “in conclusion.” Pfaff said Clinton could give a good speech but could be long-winded in a way that was very uncomfortable, including in his State of the Union addresses. When Donald Trump lingers, he said, every once in a while you want him to stop, but not very often — you can stay interested. Clinton did not have that art.

On the best Democrat convention speech, Pfaff said it was tragic that RFK did not get to speak at the 1968 convention; that would have been one of the great ones, and it could have been father and son both knocking it out of the park. After some thought, he said maybe you could give it to Barack Obama in 2008, “even though the guy is one of the greatest evil people in this country.” Fredericks offered Obama’s 2004 speech as the one that catapulted him to the Senate and the presidency; Pfaff held to 2008, recalling Rosey Grier — a thoroughgoing conservative Christian, he said, who had been treated so poorly as a football player in the 1960s that he was thrilled to see a Black president nominated, though Pfaff doubts Grier wanted the outcome that followed. He thinks the moment helped Obama win, along with John McCain’s horrible campaign.

Fredericks’ pick was Hubert Humphrey in 1968, which he said took Humphrey from basically third place to a competitive race. Pfaff called Humphrey one of the respectful men on the Democrat side, a very gracious man who could take a joke — even though he is glad Nixon won that year. Fredericks added his own read of 1968: take George Wallace out, he said, and Humphrey ran as the conservative, with Nixon as the northern liberal.

Key Takeaways

1. Pfaff is not a fan of pulling White House press credentials – But he says the networks have earned the treatment, that MSNBC was bad enough for NBC to chuck it, and that the base has no problem with the president chucking it to MS NOW and CNN going into the election.
2. The First Amendment is not an access pass – It does not give anyone a right to be in the White House, or to White House press credentials. The honorable thing is the First Amendment, not the outlets, and the same outlets would have kept the influencer community out under a Democrat administration.
3. Build the alternative – The Young Turks did it on the left and Glenn Beck on the right. Inside the mainstream, Bari Weiss at CBS shows a liberal can put news out without the nut jobs.
4. MAGA is America – Pfaff says the Trump coalition is broader than MAGA, draws people from many backgrounds and countries, and is the American party, while the Democrat Party does not reflect America at all.
5. RFK Jr.’s Dallas speech made both lists – Fredericks ranked it first; Pfaff ranked it third, behind Ronald Reagan in 1976 and Jeane Kirkpatrick in 1984, for recasting the American dream as individual liberty, respect for others, and courage against evil.
6. Buchanan’s speech came in the wrong year – Both men faulted the Buchanan convention speech; Pfaff says it belonged in 1996 against Bob Dole, and that Jack Kemp should have been the nominee.

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About The Conservative Caucus:
The Conservative Caucus is a grassroots public policy action organization, formed in 1974. Headed by President Jim Pfaff, the Caucus is committed to advancing free enterprise, limited government, and traditional values.

Originally broadcast Sep 22, 2026 on The John Fredericks Show with John Fredericks.