BREAKING: CNN, MS NOW, and Politico to Sue White House Over Press Ban
CNN, MS NOW, and Politico have announced they will sue the Trump administration, days after President Donald Trump said he would be barring the three outlets from the White House.
The trio is asking a Washington, D.C., judge to block the ban immediately and restore the press credentials to affected journalists, whose badges were confiscated on Saturday, MS NOW’s Fallon Gallagher reported.
“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the outlets said in a joint statement on Monday.
The statement went on: “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Friday that he was “banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, with more news organizations possibly to follow.
“I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico (The recipients of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government, under Crooked Joe Biden, in order to keep them “alive.” Seems like corruption to me!), from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He added: “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. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”
On cable news over the weekend, Trump-aligned figures backed the ban.
“You don’t have an inherent right to any government facility that you want, whether it’s Langley or the White House. And so I’ll leave it to the lawyers, but I think the president’s absolutely spot on here,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday’s State of the Union.
Also on Sunday, when Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker asked Republican Senator Tom Barrasso (WY) if Trump was violating the Constitution with the ban, he answered, “No,” before adding:
I believe the press has an obligation to report fairly. When you take a look at this president, and you take a look at the Hunter Biden laptop, if you want to really get into things where the press ignored the reality for a long period of time, said it was a Russian hoax. The bottom line on all of this is, this is not going to have an impact on an election 44 days from now. People are going to go to the voting booth, they’re going to make a decision based on their life, their future, what they believe is best for them and their families. My point is that they’re going to choose between common sense Republicans and crazy Democrats. I think when they make that decision they will say in the long-term, for their lives, they’re going to be better with Republicans, which is why your polling shows the Democrats in such dire straits as they’re even less popular right now than Republicans.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
Watch above via MS NOW.
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