CNN Threatens White House to Restore Access to Air Force One — or Else

Alex Brandon/AP photo

CNN has threatened to file legal action against President Donald Trump’s White House if it refuses to restore the network’s access to Air Force One.

The news giant has repeatedly been excluded from the presidential plane, “disrupting a decades-old tradition of pooled TV coverage,” CNN’s media analyst Brian Stelter reported on Tuesday.

The network has had enough, vowing to take further action in court if the Trump administration refuses to change course.

“These efforts to retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage are mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful,” Ted Boutrous, CNN’s lawyer in the case, wrote in a letter to the Department of Justice on Monday.

Trump shocked the media world last month when he announced in a Truth Social post that CNN, Politico, and MS NOW would be banned from the White House.

“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” the president wrote, adding that he’d be targeting other media outlets in the future.

Reporters from those outlets later learned their press credentials were revoked.

The three news organizations then joined forces, suing to have the order lifted. A judge later rejected the press ban, saying it violated the First Amendment.

But last week, the White House said it would appeal the judge’s motion, with a White House official telling Stelter: “The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office. The lies they smear are a disservice to the American public and tear at the very fabric of our Democracy. They’re completely capable of reporting from directly outside. We intend to appeal this misguided decision.”

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