Video Shows Journalist Threatening White House Guests After Social Media Summit

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
July 12, 2019US News
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Video Shows Journalist Threatening White House Guests After Social Media Summit
Brian Karem of Playboy Magazine shouts at White House guests in the Rose Garden on July 11, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Video footage filmed at the Rose Garden at the White House shows a political journalist threatening guests of President Donald Trump before one of the guests approaches him.

The footage was filmed and posted by Jim Hanson, president of the Security Studies Group.

Hanson was in the Rose Garden for Trump’s announcement on citizenship and filmed the beginning of the exchange.

Brian Karem told the White House guests: “This is a group of people who are eager for demonic possession.”

In response, Sebastian Gorka, a former White House aide, shouts: “You are a journalist, right?”

Karem responds by beckoning Gorka over, saying: “Come on over here and talk to me, brother.”

“We can go outside and have a long conversation,” he threatened.

Gorka was then seen approaching Karem, known for his biased reporting, and shouting: “You’re a punk, not a journalist!”

The crowd chanted for Gorka as he confronted Karem before the former White House aide turned and walked away and Karem shouted “go home” and “get a job.”

One person from the crowd tells Karem, “Just for the record, he’d kick your punk [expletive].”

The exchange was also captured in part by Katie Rogers, a reporter for the openly anti-Trump New York Times, and Benny Johnson, a former reporter for the conservative Daily Caller website and current TPUSA COO.

Project Veritas head James O’Keefe was also seen telling Karem, “I’m on the same team as you. We’re both journalists. We’re both investigative reporters. All I ask is, do your job.”

Karem was then confronted by Joy Villa, who told the reporters that those in the crowd were citizen journalists and that the media should stop reporting “fake news,” reported the conservative Breitbart website.

Karem told Villa he was a “legitimate” journalist and said she was not one.

“When you have a staff of people that verify your facts, then you can call yourself a reporter,” he said. “You have an opinion. Label yourself as an opinion.”

“You should label yourself as an opinion,” Villa responded.

“I do. And when I write a feature it’s labeled ‘news,’” Karem claimed.

Gorka later took to Twitter to write, “Nothing like getting a member of the FAKENEWS challenge you to a fight when you’re both standing in the Rose Garden of the @WhiteHouse. These people are not journalists. They’re punks and political saboteurs.”

Trump invited a number of conservative influencers and others who have spoken out about censorship on social media to the White House on July 11 for a social media summit.

Gorka and Johnson were among those attending.

Many of the attendees went to the Rose Garden for Trump’s announcement on the citizenship issue.

Playboy, Karem’s employer, has not responded to the conduct of its employee as of July 12.