On Sept. 18, President Donald Trump announced that CNN, MS NOW and Politico — which he called “fake news” — would be banned from the White House. The next day, Sept. 19, reporters from all three outlets were denied entry to the White House complex and had their press passes confiscated, according to Law Commentary. The named reporters turned away were CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein, MS NOW correspondent Akayla Gardner, and Politico reporter Cheyenne Haslett.
WHAT THE PLAINTIFFS ALLEGE:
On Sept. 21, the three outlets filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., arguing the ban violates the First Amendment’s free-press guarantee and 14th Amendment due-process rights, and asking for a temporary restraining order to immediately block the ban and restore access, according to USA Today. The complaint called the ban “a direct assault on the First Amendment” and said Trump “was expressly clear about his viewpoint discriminatory motive,” according to Red, White and True News, which reviewed the filing. The outlets’ legal theory leans on the 1977 D.C. Circuit decision in Sherrill v. Knight, which held that once the White House opens press facilities it cannot arbitrarily deny a pass without due process. Named co-defendants are Trump, White House communications aide Steven Cheung, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Secret Service Director Sean Curran, per USA Today. In a joint statement, the outlets said: “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting… the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” according to CNN.
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE SAYS:
Trump defended the action in a Truth Social post: “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press… It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS,” per USA Today. In a Monday post he added that the outlets’ coverage is “a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!” — without providing evidence of a national security threat, according to Reuters. Vice President JD Vance disputed that it is a ban and claimed 92% of the three outlets’ stories about Trump are “negative,” calling it “far-left propaganda,” per USA Today. The 92% figure is Vance’s claim; no independent verification was reported.
Trump said Monday he would fight the outlets’ request for a restraining order, writing on social media: ‘We’ll go for appeal because Fake News people and publications that only write negatively… shouldn’t be allowed access to the most important Office anywhere in the World,’ according to the Washington Examiner.
The White House launched its own livestream, dubbed ‘Trump TV,’ on Monday evening, according to the Associated Press wire service.
WHAT THE COURT HAS DONE AND WHAT IS PENDING:
A federal judge set the first hearing for Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 3:30 p.m. ET, on the outlets’ request for a temporary restraining order, with the Justice Department’s response due Tuesday night, Sept. 22, per USA Today and Red, White and True News. The judge is Timothy Kelly — a Trump appointee from his first term who ruled in 2018 that the White House had to restore CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press pass for lack of due process, per USA Today. No ruling has been issued yet.
SOLIDARITY:
Major TV networks suspended White House pool coverage — no television crews were scheduled to travel with Trump to New York for the UN General Assembly, per USA Today. ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC declined to replace CNN during its scheduled White House television pool rotation, per AURN News. Still photographers in the pool — from Reuters, Getty Images, the New York Times and the Washington Post — agreed not to publish or distribute photos taken Sept. 21 until midnight the next day, per USA Today.
On Tuesday, reporters from the three banned outlets covered Trump’s UN General Assembly visit using media passes issued by the United Nations, Reuters reported. As he entered the UN building, Trump told them: ‘I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me, you shouldn’t be here,’ adding, ‘You said you weren’t going to cover me.’ CNN has not said it would stop covering Trump, Reuters noted.
Context: last year Trump imposed a similar, narrower ban on the Associated Press over its refusal to use “Gulf of America,” per USA Today.
Sources: USA Today, USA Today, USA Today, USA Today, Reuters via WIXX, AURN News, Red White and True News, CNN, Law Commentary