'Sesame Street? That's how I learned to read': Jake Tapper confronts GOP lawmaker on cuts

CNN's Jake Tapper repeatedly questioned Rep. Brendan Gill (R-TX) on Wednesday why he and his partisan colleagues want to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS. He claimed these networks promote "far-left ideologies" — but failed to name a single example of this when pressed.

"Speaker Johnson has said he would additionally like to cut funding for public broadcasting, PBS, which does receive some support from the federal government," said Tapper. "I just — it's interesting, I just have to say, on a personal level, I learned to read by watching 'Sesame Street' and 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' and 'The Electric Company.' That's literally how I learned to read as a kid. Why do you not think PBS is important?"

"Well, listen, we were — I'm a member of the DOGE Subcommittee of Oversight," said Gill. "We were tasked with finding waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and highlighting it. And one of those that we found, which Republicans and conservatives have talked about for decades, is state-sponsored media in the United States. China and North Korea have state-sponsored media. The United States does not need state-sponsored media. Listen, if Fox News or any other conservative news organization came to me and asked for taxpayer money, I would tell them no. And I certainly don't think we should be funding left-wing propaganda outlets like NPR or PBS."

NPR and PBS are not state-sponsored media, as Gill asserted.

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He continued, "The American people are sick of funding institutions who promote values that they find repugnant, and that's what we're doing with NPR and PBS. And that's what we are, hopefully soon via a rescission bill, going to pull those funds back."

But Tapper wasn't satisfied with the answer.

"Okay, but 'Sesame Street?'" said Tapper. "I mean, Daniel the Tiger? 'Wild Kratts?' I mean, you have little kids, I know, and I'm sure you, you and your wife can can bring them great educational programming, but a lot of kids might not have access to cable, and I didn't when I was little because cable didn't exist. But, I mean, PBS really helps little kids. I mean, I'm talking specifically about kids learning how to read through Sesame Street and similar programming."

"Well, they've already spun off Sesame Street to HBO, so that's not with PBS anymore," said Gill. "But what I don't think the government should be doing is funding these institutions that are radically left-wing and are oftentimes, even in their cartoon shows, geared towards young children, promoting far-left ideologies that are not teaching children how to read but are teaching them the trans agenda and other things that large portions of our country do not agree with. Our tax dollars should not be funding institutions and ideologies that are promoting values that many people ... find repulsive."

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