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The White House on Monday refused to allow a Politico reporter aboard Air Force One on the president’s trip to Grand Island, Nebraska.
Politico confirmed to HuffPost that the outlet had been scheduled to provide out-of-town pool coverage but declined to comment further.
The decision represents an escalation in President Donald Trump’s war on the First Amendment. Last month, the White House similarly left CNN off Air Force One even though it had been scheduled to provide independent media coverage of Trump’s visit to Tennessee; instead, a far-right outlet tagged along for fawning coverage.
Politics: Trump Says He Cherishes The Free Press, Actually (He Just Banned 3 News Outlets)
“FAKE NEWS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!! IT HAS GONE ON FAR TOO LONG, AT A TREMENDOUS COST TO OUR COUNTRY,” Trump wrote on social media at the time.
One of the purported “fake” stories that triggered Trump was an accurate report that Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds had removed references to Trump from his website.
In September, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore access to journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico after Trump attempted to ban them from the White House. The order, however, didn’t specifically address pool duties or Air Force One.
Trump said on social media at the time that he’d done so because he thought they “constantly write or report FICTION and LIES,” only to later claim he’d kicked them out over a vague claim related to national security.
U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly, a Trump appointee, didn’t buy the national security argument and ordered the White House to immediately return their press passes, saying it “likely violated their constitutional due process rights.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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