BREAKING: MS NOW and CNN Regain White House Access After Trump Seemingly Doubled Down on Ban

MS NOW, CNN, and Politico have regained access to the White House after journalists found their credentials not active on Thursday morning, despite a court order shooting down President Donald Trump’s media ban.

MS NOW White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López confirmed MS NOW had regained their access on Thursday at around noon. She had been denied access that very morning as Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House.

Barrón-López reported:

I have been restored my access, and I believe that others on our team are being restored their access as well as I speak. And so this is the North Lawn right on Pebble Beach that we’ve been talking about a lot as well where so many foreign heads of state come through here, as well as different administration officials. And we often, at the end of the lawn, closer to the West Wing, we often will talk to them and they will come and speak to the press at what’s called the sticks. And so now, hopefully throughout the day, if any administration officials come to speak about the ongoing state visit by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, we will be able to be there and to ask the necessary questions.

MS NOW’s Peter Alexander noted that the network did not know whether their reporters’ credentials not working on Thursday morning was “deliberate” or simply a lag in the computer system, which would have been about a 12-hour lag.

On CNN’s Inside Politics, Dana Bash also showed CNN White House correspondent Betsy Klein being led to the White House by Secret Service after being denied access. Klein later confirmed her access had been restored.

Politico also confirmed around the same time that they a reporter was granted access to the White House grounds are being turned away in the morning.

The president announced last week that he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House grounds, accusing them of publishing “fake news” about him. Journalists from those outlets then reported they were physically denied access and lost their credentials.

All three outlets filed suit, and a judge ordered the ban to stop, though it appeared to still be in place on Thursday morning when reporters found themselves in the same position as before.

The outlets filed an emergency position on Thursday morning to regain access, but the White House claimed in their own filing that all three outlets’ access had been restored in the 9 a.m. hour. It’s unclear what accounts for the delay as all reported being turned away and Klein could be seen on CNN not being brought to the White House until noon.

Watch above via MS NOW and CNN.

This is a breaking story and it has been updated. 

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