White House Again Bars CNN From Press Pool

The White House again excluded CNN from its presidential press pool Thursday, leaving reporters without television pool coverage as the network continues its legal fight with the Trump administration over press access.CNN was scheduled to serve as Thursday’s primary television pool outlet but was left off the White House’s daily schedule. The exclusion underscores a central dispute in the ongoing court battle: While a federal judge has ordered the White House to restore the network’s press credentials, CNN says it is still being denied access to presidential press pools. “Be advised that there is no TV pool today because it is CNN’s turn and the president is mad at them,” HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte wrote in his Thursday morning pool report. The television pool consists of ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC News, which rotate responsibility for providing footage of presidential events to other news organizations. Without a primary television pool outlet, the broader press corps would lack the usual shared video feed if Trump held an event open to pool coverage. Thursday’s move comes just over a week after CNN, MS NOW and Politico expanded their lawsuit against the administration, alleging that the White House continued excluding them from presidential press pools despite an Oct. 13 court order restoring their credentials. In their amended complaint filed Oct. 28, the outlets accused the administration of retaliating against them over their reporting. CNN said it had been excluded from six scheduled Air Force One pool assignments since Trump’s Sept. 18 ban, while Politico reported being blocked from two. MS NOW said it had not participated in the secondary television pool since the ban took effect. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly found that the outlets were likely to succeed on their First Amendment and due process claims when he ordered their credentials restored. But that ruling did not settle whether the White House must include them in presidential press pools, which remains at the center of the dispute. The White House has rejected the allegations. An administration official told TheWrap last week that the outlets had no right to demand access to the Oval Office, accused them of inaccurate reporting and reiterated the administration’s intention to challenge the earlier ruling. The administration filed its appeal Oct. 14.