Donald Trump has banned CNN from the White House. Then his wife turned around and gave the network a press credential to cover her in New York.
Just days after Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, First Lady Melania Trump’s office issued a press credential for CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein to cover Melania Trump’s event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
In other words, Trump shut CNN out. Melania’s office let CNN in.
CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter revealed the apparent workaround Monday while discussing Trump’s ban.
“We’re going to see reporters get creative,” Stelter said. “That’s what we do sometimes when we have to. We’re going to see reporters try and get credentialed in other ways.”
Then he dropped the news that a CNN reporter had already been approved by Melania’s office.
“I’m told, for example, a CNN reporter has already been approved by the office of the first lady to cover an event with Melania Trump on the sidelines of the U.N. tomorrow,” Stelter said.
An official from the first lady’s office subsequently confirmed that it had approved Klein’s credential request.
Klein is scheduled to cover Melania’s “Fostering the Future Together” announcement in New York on Tuesday. The event is taking place during the U.N. General Assembly and will highlight partnerships involving the private sector and technology companies.
And there is an extra layer of irony here.
Klein is the same CNN reporter who recently reported that Secret Service agents seized her White House press pass after Trump’s ban took effect.
Now she has a credential to cover the first lady.
The difference is that this time, the credential came from Melania Trump’s office.
Trump announced Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were being barred from the White House, accusing the outlets of publishing what he called “FICTION and LIES.”
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The three news organizations didn’t simply accept the ban.
On Monday, they sued Trump and senior administration officials, arguing that their exclusion violated their First Amendment rights and Fifth Amendment due-process protections. They are asking a federal judge to restore their access to the White House.
The legal battle is moving quickly. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who set an expedited schedule for the administration to respond.
Meanwhile, Trump’s decision to exclude CNN has triggered a much broader confrontation with the television networks.
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News have suspended their pooled television coverage of presidential events rather than replace CNN in the rotating pool. The networks said the public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about the government and that no administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.
