After a Washington Post story detailed precautions taken by the Secret Service during an Iranian assassination threat after July’s NATO summit in Turkey, MS NOW was full of disdain for the Trump Administration for not disclosing every last move to the press. On Tuesday’s The Moment with Katy Tur, MS NOW White House reporter Vaughn Hillyard also showed his displeasure, and even connected the situation to “transparency” and media-driven Trump health speculation.
Hillyard, who left NBC News for the progressive cable channel in the Versant divorce, proclaimed the situation was “really one of those breaches of trust that call into question the veracity of statements made in the future by this White House: that they were going to have to reckon with.”
He then quickly added faint concern for the President’s safety: “And, of course, to David's point here, the imperative of the president's safety is a foremost concern.”
Tuesday afternoon, MS NOW’s Vaughn Hillyard complained that the Trump White House should have told the press about the reported Presidential plane switch amid an Iranian assassination threat in an “off-the-record” meeting.
He then mentioned “mounting concerns about the… pic.twitter.com/2LbXJIKlrX— Nick (@nspin310) August 11, 2026
Then came the “but”:
But at the same time, there is another means to which you can inform the press. And that is having an off-the-record conversation.
Apparently, according to Hillyard, there was little risk to sharing the information of a possible Iranian threat, and the White House should have dropped everything and told the press.
Hillyard detailed another Post story on a decoy plane used in 2000 by former President Bill Clinton where then-WHCA President Susan Page was briefed in an off-the-record meeting about the decoy. “And I think that that is sort of the type of relationship that has long existed between the press corps and between the White House,” he said.
Hillyard then complained about current “transparency” from the administration: “Of course, there is tension along the way here, but the fact is that this is a year and a half into this administration, one of mounting concerns about the transparency within it.”
He continued and tried the plane switcheroo to media-driven speculation over Trump’s physical health:
The president's health is another one of those situations where oftentimes there is a slow delay in information, and it is not until there is more concrete evidence that the White House actually has to then describe in detail for not just the press.
Hillyard then exclaimed, “Importantly, this isn't about the press. This is about the American public.”
Tur joined in after Hillyard’s long answer to her question, and tried to make it about the President being “weak”:
And the commonality, by the way, between the lack of transparency regarding the president's health and the story and what I started this show with is not wanting to look weak (...).
A possible reasoning why the White House did not give an “off-the-record” brief on the plane switch, Hillyard should have watched the primetime lineup of his own employer, where Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow were seemingly giddy about the assassination threat story.
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s The Moment with Katy Tur
August 11, 2026
3:09:58 PM Eastern
(...)
KATY TUR: Vaughn, what's the White House saying?
VAUGHN HILLYARD: The White House isn't saying very much at all. And I think that this is really one of those breaches of trust that call into question the veracity of statements made in the future by this White House, that I think that they are going to have to reckon with. And, of course, to David's point here, the imperative of the president's safety is a foremost concern. But at the same time, there is another means to which you can inform the press. And that is having an off-the-record conversation.
The Washington Post, which broke this story, just went up with the story detailing how White House Correspondents Association President Susan Page, back in 2000, was called in for an off-the-record with the White House when then-President Bill Clinton took a decoy plane into Pakistan, and that the press corps was made aware of it, and the determination was to not go public with it. And I think that that is sort of the type of relationship that has long existed between the press corps and between the White House.
Of course, there is tension along the way here, but the fact is that this is a year and a half into this administration, one of mounting concerns about the transparency within it.
The president's health is another one of those situations where oftentimes there is a slow delay in information, and it is not until there is more concrete evidence in which the White House actually has to then describe in detail for not just the press.
Importantly, this isn't about the press. This is about the American public - that exactly what the details are. And I think that this is another one of those situations. It is not until this video that you are watching and reporting from the Washington Post that ultimately forces the hand of the white house to be more forward about not just the threat that the president is facing from Iran, which they have not been clear about, but also the determination to continue to use the Qatari jet, despite their repeated denials that the jet is not outfitted in the same with the same type of missile anti defense weaponry that the old air force one is.
TUR: And the commonality, by the way, between the lack of transparency regarding the president's health and the story and what I started this show with is not wanting to look weak and, Mark, that single motivation, wanting to seem like the toughest guy around, the strongest guy around the guy that's willing to do what everybody else is unwilling to do because he's just so much smarter and ballsier than the rest. Is that dictating Donald Trump's presidency?
(...)
