As the CNN, MS NOW and Politico await a court hearing today over President Donald Trump’s decision to ban them from the White House grounds, reporters from the news outlets covered his visit to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday using media passes issued by the UN.
“I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me, you shouldn’t be here,” Trump said yesterday as he entered the United Nations building and addressed a group of reporters. “You said you weren’t going to cover me.”
CNN has not said it would stop covering Trump.
Trump announced the ban on Friday on social media, saying the three news outlets ‘shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States,’ and defended it in another post on Monday. The news outlets sued Trump and other members of his administration on Monday, saying the action violated the US Constitution’s First Amendment protections for free speech and a free Press. They are seeking a temporary restraining order to block Trump’s action in federal court in Washington, with a hearing scheduled today before US District Judge Timothy Kelly.
Trump said that ‘this is a judge who’s not a particularly fair judge.’ Trump added: “But I’m talking about national security. I think we have a right to clean out fake news.”
Trump appointed Kelly to the bench in 2017 during his first term as president. Kelly ruled against Trump in 2018 in a case involving a CNN journalist who sued after his White House Press pass was revoked.
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