White House Revokes Press Passes of CNN, MS NOW and Politico
CNN, MS NOW and Politico had their White House press passes confiscated after President Trump announced he would ban them from the building.
The White House moved on Saturday to bar journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from its grounds, a day after President Donald Trump said he would shut the three outlets out.
Each organisation said its team's press passes were taken on Saturday morning as its journalists arrived at the White House. All three have indicated they may challenge the move as a violation of the First Amendment, which protects free speech and a free press.
CNN described the step as an unlawful attack on its constitutional right to report without government interference. MS NOW and Politico each said they would defend their First Amendment rights, with MS NOW adding that it would take whatever steps were needed to protect independent journalism's place in a democracy.
CNN and MS NOW said their coverage of the administration would continue, while Politico said it stood behind its reporters assigned to the White House.
In a social media post on Friday, Trump accused the outlets of reporting what he called fake news, arguing they should not be free to publish what he described as fiction and lies while covering the president. He also warned that other news organisations could face similar treatment.
Asked in the Oval Office on Friday which outlets he had in mind, Trump named the New York Times and the Washington Post as examples of what he termed fake news, though he stopped short of saying he would ban them from the White House. The Times responded by calling the ban another retaliatory and unconstitutional threat, and said it stood with the news organisations it said were being unfairly targeted.
Trump has previously sought to keep individual outlets or journalists away from press gatherings. Last year he excluded one news agency from the pool that travels with him, after it declined to adopt his preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico; the agency has contested that decision. During his first term, his administration tried to revoke or suspend the credentials of a Playboy correspondent and a CNN reporter, but federal judges ordered their White House press passes restored.