Kennedy Center VP Roma Daravi says nothing is being demolished and tells viewers to ignore reports otherwise
Vice President of Public Relations of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in a televised interview on Real America's Voice's "Just the News, No Noise"
“Nothing is being demolished. Ignore the media that is saying that because no one has ever said that coming from the institution. I can promise you that.”
Source and context
Original video
About this source
Full-episode upload by the Just the News channel (upload timestamp 2026-09-16 23:33 UTC, 46:54 long) of the Real America's Voice show 'Just the News, No Noise'. Audio downloaded with yt-dlp and transcribed with mlx-whisper (large-v3-turbo on the whole file and on clips; medium.en and small.en on the 32:00-32:20 clip); all runs agree, and a video frame at about 32:05 shows the on-screen lower third 'ROMA DARAVI / Kennedy Center Vice President, PR' with the Real America's Voice and Just the News No Noise logos. Punctuation is the transcriber's. The uploaded file contains the guest segment twice (about 24:28-34:13 and 35:45-45:30). Whisper renders her surname as 'Dharavi' in the host's introduction; the on-screen graphic and CBS's correction note give 'Daravi'.
Reporting
About this source
News article (published 11:06 AM ET Sept. 17, updated 8:24 PM ET), fetched with curl and read in full. It quotes two fragments of Daravi's remarks, 'nothing is being demolished' and 'the media that is saying that because no one has ever said that coming from the institution', which match the recording word for word. The lede says her remark came 'Before Mr. Trump's comments' while the body says 'Wednesday night'; the recording does not state its own air time and the order relative to Trump's Charlotte remark was not established.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
On Sept. 15, Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center board could not put President Trump's name on the building, the board voted to close the center for renovations, and Trump posted on Truth Social that the closing would take place immediately. On Sept. 16, fencing went up around the center and executive director Matt Floca ordered a seven-day closure of most public spaces in the main building on safety grounds.
After the quotation
The same evening, Trump told reporters in Charlotte that the Trump administration should have recognition for getting involved with the Kennedy Center and referred to the center closing and being "ripped down." On Sept. 17, Judge Cooper ordered the defendants to give more than 30 days' written notice before any change to the scope of the project plans, including any "demolition" of the Center's main building.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Donald Trump's statements linking the Kennedy Center's renovation to recognition for his administration
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case's fixed reference point is President Trump's stated position that the Kennedy Center's closure and renovation depend on recognition for his administration, as expressed in his Sept. 15 Truth Social post and reaffirmed in his Sept. 16 remarks in Charlotte. Daravi says nothing is being demolished and tells viewers to disregard reports to the contrary, which disputes a description of the situation without saying whether tying the closure or renovation to recognition is justified or wrong. The closest competing label is defends_or_excuses, because she speaks for an institution whose board Trump chairs. That loses because the quoted words consist of her denial and her instruction to disregard the reports, and they do not say that the position or the closure is justified, acceptable or reasonable.
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Donald Trump's statements linking the Kennedy Center's renovation to recognition for his administration
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
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