Trump bars CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House
By Freddie Clayton, Rob Wile and Raquel Coronell Uribe
Journalists from MS NOW, CNN and Politico were barred from accessing the White House grounds and had their passes confiscated on Saturday, a day after President Donald Trump said that he had banned the news outlets.
Trump, who is facing an electorate frustrated with rising costs and a protracted war with Iran, said on social media on Friday that he was blocking the outlets over what he called “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS.”
On Saturday morning, MS NOW reporter Akayla Gardner, CNN reporter Betsy Klein and Politico reporter Cheyenne Haslett arrived to work at the White House. All three were denied entry.
Gardner said her badge did not work.
“The officer asked me to hand over my badge,” Gardner said on air. “He said that it was disabled. I asked why I was not able to get inside. He said it was above him.”
An MS NOW photographer was also denied access, Gardner said, while one of the network’s producers was allowed onto the White House grounds. It was not immediately clear why their access differed.
“The White House belongs to the American people and the decisions made inside are funded by our tax dollars,” MS NOW said in a statement posted on X.
“MS NOW intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalists in our democracy,” it added. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press.
Klein spent about a minute inside the security kiosk before emerging without her credential, which she said had been confiscated.
CNN confirmed Saturday that its journalists were denied access.
“We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do our reporting without hinderance or interference from the government and this ban is an illegal assault on this fundamental right,” the outlet said in a statement posted on X.
“We will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account, and we will continue to report on the actions and processes of this administration without fear or favor,” the statement added.
CNN and MS NOW were broadcasting shortly after its journalists’ access was revoked, doing live hits from the corner of Pennsylvania Ave. and 17th St. in Washington, across the street from the access point the press usually goes through to enter the White House. The reporters described the moment they found out their access had been revoked.
Haslett went inside the security kiosk briefly before exiting after being denied access to the White House grounds.
Politico’s editor-in-chief, Jonathan Greenberger, sent a newsroom-wide email detailing that Haslett had her pass confiscated by the Secret Service.
“We stand by her and all reporters here covering the White House. As we said yesterday, we will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights,” Greenberger said, according to a post by Politico’s communications team on X.
The White House declined to comment further Saturday, referring NBC News to Trump’s previous comments.
In a Truth Social post Friday afternoon, Trump said media outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States.”
Trump also warned “other outlets” would “follow” but did not specify which ones.
Trump also claimed that Politico received “a illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government.”
Politico’s press team said in a post on X Friday that Trump’s claims that Politico “received government subsidies are false and have been thoroughly debunked.”
“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,” the post said.
Trump addressed the bans in the Oval Office on Friday, saying that the new policy was the result of “cumulative stories over the last few years.” A White House spokesperson referred NBC News to the president’s spoken comments.
The move has drawn broad criticism.
During a Friday speaking engagement at Colgate University from which NBC News obtained audio, former President Barack Obama said: “I’m trying to think what would have happened if I had said, ‘You know what? Fox News, you’re out of here.’ It’s unimaginable.”
He added that if a certain pocket of the country agrees with the proposed restriction, “we have not developed the kind of understanding of what democracy requires,” saying people have to get to work to shore up that understanding.
White House Correspondents’ Association President Jacqui Heinrich described the move as a constitutional violation in a statement Friday.
“The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference,” Heinrich said in a statement. “That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.”
“The WHCA stands in defense of our colleagues at CNN, MS NOW, and Politico who are being singled out for doing their jobs,” she added.
In another statement released after the reporters were barred from the White House, Heinrich said the move violated the First Amendment.
“The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future,” Heinrich wrote in a WHCA statement . “The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favorably.”
Heinrich added that courts have previously ruled the White House cannot deny access to journalists arbitrarily based on the content of their reporting.
“The WHCA calls on the administration to immediately restore our colleagues’ access,” Heinrich added.
New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander also pushed back on the move.
“The courts have twice found that the Trump administration violated the Constitution by suspending reporters’ White House press passes,” Stadtlander said. “The Times stands in support of the news organizations being unfairly targeted by the president.”
Jameel Jaffer, the director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in an interview with NBC News that the move to bar the outlets from the White House was “pretty clearly unconstitutional.”
“I expect that it will be challenged and I would expect the challenge to be successful,” Jaffer said.
He added that the move was “representative of a broader pattern” with the Trump administration, citing the president’s past attempts to expel the Associated Press from the White House press pool and the Defense Department limiting journalists’ access to the Pentagon.
“I see this latest move as part of that same pattern, which I think is an effort by President Trump to intimidate the press and to deter media outlets from reporting critically about his policies and decisions,” Jaffer said.
Jaffer added that while Trump might frame the move as retaliation on particular news organizations, it’s an attack on the “public’s right to independent information about government.”
“President Trump presents it as retaliation against these particular news organizations, but it’s really a move against the public’s right to know, and that’s the way that we should be thinking about it,” Jaffer said.
The ban is the latest in Trump’s ongoing efforts to punish news organizations and broadcasters for their coverage. Shortly after taking office, Trump banned The Associated Press from the Oval Office, Air Force One and some events after it declined to acknowledge his effort to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The AP filed suit, and the case is ongoing.
The AP’s Chief Communications Officer Lauren Easton said in a statement Saturday that the publication stands “with the news organizations who have had their access restricted.”
“No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use,” Easton wrote.
Trump has also sued outlets including the BBC, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal claiming defamation. The suits against the Times and the Journal were dismissed but have since been refiled. The BBC has filed to get Trump’s suit against it tossed.
