In June 2026, a rumor spread on Facebook that NBC fired Kristen Welker of "Meet The Press" after her interview of U.S. President Donald Trump, which he abruptly ended when asked to provide evidence that the 2020 election was rigged.
Some users seemed to interpret the rumor about Welker as true, and Snopes readers contacted us to ask about its legitimacy.
(America Loves Liberty Facebook page)
To investigate the rumor's legitimacy, we first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo. If NBC had suspended Welker, the company almost certainly would have released a statement about the decision that would have been widely reported in reputable news outlets such as The Associated Press or Reuters.
That was not the case. We did not find any credible reporting supporting the claim that NBC suspended Welker.
Instead, we found that the rumor originated with a June 8 post on the America Loves Liberty Facebook page, which is associated with the America's Last Line of Defense network of social media pages and websites. America's Last Line of Defense is known for posting content that it describes as satirical.
In this case, the image of Welker attached to the post contained a watermark that read "Nothing on this page is real." The America Loves Liberty Facebook page's bio and header image noted the same. The bio and header image further described the page as "an authorized dumping ground for certified AI-free trollery and right-wing propaganda courtesy of America's Last Line of Defense," which was "created to monetize content from gullible MAGA and right-wing Facebook users."
Snopes also attempted to contact NBC to confirm it had not suspended Welker and that the story was false. We will update this story if we hear back.
Snopes frequently debunks rumors that originate as satirical posts. For instance, we alerted readers to a fake video supposedly showing Trump dozing off during a meeting, then waking himself up with a fart, whose creator described it as satirical.
Because the effectiveness of satire is subjective, we use "originated as satire" or "labeled satire" ratings based on creators' description of their work. It's your call on whether you agree.