The White House kept CNN off Air Force One for President Donald Trump’s trip Saturday to a college football game in Tennessee, marking the latest media restriction imposed by the administration in an ongoing dispute with First Amendment implications.
CNN, part of the American video network pool with task rotation filming and sharing video coverage of the president, reported that he was scheduled to board the president’s plane Saturday for a visit to a noon game between the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and the University of Texas. But the White House guidelines released Friday evening instead included Real America’s Voice, a conservative media outlet.
The White House directives were issued after journalists from CNN, as well as MS NOW and Politico, which Trump banned last week from the White House grounds, returned to the executive complex with television cameras in hand after a judge granted the organizations a reprieve.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily overturned the president’s ban in a ruling issued Thursday morning, but its ruling concerned “hard passes” to the White House grounds and did not directly address pool-related duties.
The judge’s temporary order also says nothing directly about Air Force One.
CNN’s seat on the flight has long been reserved for a member of the American network video pool; Real America’s Voice is not part of this group. The White House did not respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment on the decision.
CNN declined to comment.
A written report Saturday morning confirmed there was “no TV pool” for the trip, although Real America’s Voice celebrated its inclusion on the trip and said it would make the feeds available to other media outlets.
“CNN is not here; we have taken on that responsibility. We are so excited to be here,” correspondent Taylor Mitchell said in a video posted to social media.
On Saturday morning, the president addressed the broader debate in a social media post, writing: “FAKE NEWS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED INTO THE WHITE HOUSE!!! THIS IS LASTING FAR TOO LONG, AT A HUGE COST TO OUR COUNTRY.”
Fans at the match were caught a low-altitude flyover as Air Force One came into town while the teams warmed up. The president’s motorcade arrived just as the national anthem was being sung, and the president was then shown on a jumbotron and greeted with cheers, according to a verbatim report.
The media believe that the court decision covers the “pool”
Theodore Boutrous Jr., attorney for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, did not respond to phone calls or emails Friday evening or Saturday morning. Earlier Friday on “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” Boutrous said the plaintiffs believe the court’s recent ruling also covers the issue of pool access.
For a time on Friday, the US network video pool for the White House was recommissioning for the first time since Trump banned all three media outlets in an extraordinary showdown over media access.
At noon on CNN, viewers were able to see Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping visit the National Archives, alongside Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, Xi’s wife. The banner at the bottom of the screen read: “Trump and China’s Xi Visit National Archives.” It was a routine report on a state visit — except CNN hadn’t aired live video of Trump in several days.
“Right now, all systems are working,” said a person close to the pool, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the fluidity of the situation.
Pool participants showed solidarity this week
The TV pool consists of five major American broadcast networks. When the White House banned CNN from its premises, along with MS NOW and Politico, the other four pool providers refused to participate in a show of solidarity.
CNN did not comment directly on Friday, instead referring to its editorial coverage. It was the same on Saturday. But Brian Stelter, the network’s media analyst, published Friday X that CNN had a pool assignment at the National Archives event and that the White House had approved the network’s credentials.
The outlet covered his exclusion from Air Force One on Saturday, write this this decision “represents the Trump administration’s latest salvo against CNN and the entire White House press corps.”
Throughout his second term, Trump increasingly targeted media outlets whose coverage irritated him, taking administrative or legal action against several of them. Early last year, he banned AP journalists from White House events because the organization was not complying with his executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.” The AP guidelines say to recognize the new name if applicable.
The case is on appeal after a federal district judge ruled in favor of AP.
The press pool was created decades ago by the White House Correspondents Association, a group of journalists who cover the president, to ensure that a rotating roster always travels with the president. The pool distributes in-person reporting and images to the entire press corps and is designed to hold the nation’s chief executive accountable on behalf of the American public.
The association did not respond to emails seeking comment.
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AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed.
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