Journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were denied entry to the White House on Saturday after President Donald Trump declared he was "banning" the news organizations. This action followed Trump's earlier announcement on Friday regarding the ban.
The White House's decision escalated a dispute that began on Friday. Reporters from all three publications were turned away from the White House grounds. This move breaks with decades of precedent for White House press access.
CNN's senior White House reporter Betsy Klein reported that her press badge was deactivated when she tried to enter the complex. She stated that after her hard pass failed at a security checkpoint, a Secret Service agent informed her the badge had been deactivated and subsequently retained it. MS NOW correspondent Akayla Gardner described a similar incident.
The White House Correspondents' Association criticized these restrictions, with its president, Jacqui Heinrich, stating that the decision violated the First Amendment. The association expressed concerns that a standard used to exclude one news outlet could be applied to any outlet in the future.
This incident also led to the White House removing CNN from its Monday assignment as the television pool representative for the entire White House press corps. CNN had been scheduled to act as the TV pool for Monday and accompany Trump to New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, an assignment that was later removed from the White House's official guidance.
