President Donald Trump announced Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico will be banned from the White House.
“I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW … and Politico … from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump doubled down on his announced ban while taking questions from reporters at the Oval Office, citing “cumulative stories” the three outlets have published over the years.
“You get sick of it,” Trump said.
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Trump denied he was trying to intimidate the press from doing its job in an exchange with another reporter.
For decades, CNN has been part of a rotating pool of five networks, including Fox News, that travel with the president around the world.
Notably, CNN has already been selected to lead network pool coverage Monday as Trump is set to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Republican Arkansas governor and former White House press secretary during the first Trump administration, was in attendance at the Oval Office event focused on healthcare and rejected the notion that Trump opposes a free press that’s enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution.
“I think it’s hard for you to argue against a free press when you’re literally standing in the Oval Office asking questions of the president of the United States,” Sanders told reporters. “He has been more accessible and easier to talk to than any president in history.”
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Past efforts by the Trump administration to ban outlets and individual journalists have been blocked by federal judges.
“I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day, after day, after day. I think that somebody has a right to keep them away,” Trump said.
Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy said CNN was still broadcasting live from its tent on media row outside the White House, but a senior White House official told him top brass at CNN, MS NOW and Politico were being informed that their journalists cannot be on White House grounds beginning Saturday.
“CNN stands fully behind our White House team and their fair and accurate reporting,” the network said in a statement on X. “We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government. Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally-protected right.”
Politico also issued a statement, telling Fox News Digital, “Politico will continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones. We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them.”
A spokesperson for MS NOW declined to comment.
