CNN, MS NOW and Politico have filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Trump administration after their reporters were blocked from the White House over coverage the president condemned as “Fake News.”
The three news organizations announced the legal action in a joint statement Monday, shortly after journalists from each outlet were denied access to the White House grounds.
“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.
They said the White House withdrew their reporters’ credentials “without notice or process” because officials objected to their journalism.
“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference,” the statement warned.
Trump announced on Truth Social Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred “effective immediately,” adding that “other Fake News Media Outlets” could face similar restrictions.
“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,” he wrote.
The restrictions began over the weekend. CNN reporter Betsy Klein covered events from the sidewalk outside the White House on Saturday, displaying an empty credential holder.
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins in the White House Press Briefing Room on September 3
Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett and MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner were likewise photographed reporting near the complex after being refused entry.
The White House also removed CNN from its scheduled assignment as the television pool representative for Monday.
Speaking in the Oval Office Friday, Trump said the decision was not triggered by one particular report. Instead, he blamed what he called “cumulative stories over the last two years.”
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“You get sick of it,” he said.
“I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can, and if they could straighten themselves out, I’d love it.”
The president said he supports a free press, while insisting that journalists must provide what he described as “a fair and honest press.”
“It’s sick. I mean, there’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stuff. Now, if they want to write them, that’s fine. But I don’t have to let them into my, into the people’s house,” he said.
The media organizations are drawing on a recent legal precedent. In 2018, a federal judge ordered the White House to reinstate CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press pass after it was revoked following a tense exchange with Trump.
President Donald Trump speaks at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, Friday, July 24
CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein reports near the White House complex Saturday after her credential was revoked by Donald Trump
The Associated Press was also barred from the Oval Office and Air Force One last year after declining to use the name “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico.
A federal judge sided with the AP, but an appeals court later paused that ruling.
Trump doubled down after the lawsuit was announced Monday, writing on Truth Social: ‘The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America.
‘It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!’
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