THE neo-nazi fascist authoritarian drumpf/trump-vance administration with the full support of their cabinet and the gop / greed over people-republican party are attempting to destroy the our free press that is guaranteed in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. With the 2026 Midterm elections 44 days away and all indications are the republican party will loose control of congress this administration will do all it can to have the fascist heritage foundation's authoritarian theocratic oligarchy in place and ready to assume power if drumpf/trump-vance declare the democratic Republic of the United States null and void. This from the New York Times .....
Trump Administration Updates: CNN, Politico and MS NOW Reporters Barred From White House
Michael M. GrynbaumZolan Kanno-Youngs and Benjamin Mullin
Michael Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin reported from New York, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs from Washington.
Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were denied entry to the White House on Saturday morning in a stark escalation of President Trump’s long battle with the mainstream news media that sets up a legal and constitutional clash.
First Amendment experts condemned Mr. Trump’s ban as unconstitutional and said that it was unlikely to survive a court challenge. Affected outlets pledged to defend their legal rights.
Akayla Gardner, a correspondent for MS NOW, said that her White House-issued access badge failed to work on Saturday at the security entrance where reporters usually enter near the West Wing. “The officer asked me to hand over my badge,” she said. A reporter for CNN had a similar experience.
Mr. Trump has sued, subpoenaed and threatened the press corps before over what he sees as negative coverage, but his abrupt decision to bar the three news outlets, announced in a Truth Social post on Friday, caught some administration officials off guard, including aides in his press office, according to three people who were told about the conversations.
Here’s what else to know:
Television: The major television networks were discussing how to respond if CNN were still banned next week, when it is scheduled to provide pool coverage to all networks about Mr. Trump’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly. The other networks could refuse to substitute for CNN, leaving Mr. Trump without a mainstream television crew to cover his U.N. appearances. In 2009, the major networks balked when the Obama administration tried to bar Fox News from participating in a Treasury Department event, and the White House backed down.
Trump’s rationale: Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Mr. Trump attributed the ban to his displeasure with the outlets’ coverage of his administration. “There’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories,” Mr. Trump said. He added, “Now, if they want to write them, that’s fine, but I don’t have to let them into my — into the people’s house.” Read more ›
Viewpoint discrimination: Legal experts said that Mr. Trump’s media ban was unlikely to survive a court challenge, because the president explicitly connected his decision to bar CNN, Politico and MS NOW to the content of their reporting. That’s “textbook viewpoint discrimination,” said Bruce D. Brown, the president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The White House lost a similar legal battle during Mr. Trump’s first term after it revoked the press pass for the CNN reporter Jim Acosta.
Widespread criticism: Many mainstream media outlets and press freedom groups condemned the president’s ban. MS NOW vowed to “take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights,” and Politico’s chief editor made a similar pledge. CNN called the ban “illegal.” Even some Fox News contributors and journalists took issue with the ban. “Challenge liberal reporters,” one Fox contributor, Ari Fleischer, said. “Argue and defeat them. Don’t ban them. Or one day they’ll ban us.”
Many major media outlets and some high-profile Democrats panned President Trump’s abrupt decision to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.
Mr. Trump acted on his latest barrage of threats against the press on Saturday morning, when reporters for the outlets were denied access to the White House and had their badges confiscated.
On Friday evening, Mr. Trump had accused the three outlets of running “purposely negative stories” that were untrue, though he provided no details. The Trump administration has not said what led to his decision, which many First Amendment groups called unconstitutional and unlikely to survive a court challenge.
Condemnation from leading news outlets was nearly universal, including from many that compete directly with CNN, MS NOW and Politico.
“No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use,” said Lauren Easton, a spokeswoman for The Associated Press, which filed suit over restrictions that Mr. Trump tried to impose on its White House access last year.
The New York Times, The Washington Post and press associations also released statements calling the ban an attack on free speech and the free press.
Journalists at Fox News have also taken issue with the ban. One Fox contributor, Ari Fleischer, said conservatives should challenge liberal reporters. “Argue and defeat them,” he said. “Don’t ban them. Or one day they’ll ban us.” Another contributor, Jonathan Turley, said that “barring disfavored media from the White House is a terrible precedent and practice.”
Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox News anchor and the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said on social media that the right to First Amendment protections “does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage.”
“This is about more than the rights of journalists,” Ms. Heinrich added. “It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies and decisions of whoever occupies the nation’s highest office.”
Democrats pounced on Mr. Trump’s ban as an attempt to hide his administration’s shortcomings and to distract voters from other issues. They pointed out that Republicans were heading into a challenging election cycle with high inflation and an unpopular war with Iran started by Mr. Trump, whose support in the polls has sagged.
“Donald Trump just did what dictators throughout history have done,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, said on social media. “This is a democracy. You will not be able to manipulate the news or hide the truth.”
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called on the news media to boycott the White House if Mr. Trump “keeps violating press freedom.” Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said Mr. Trump was censoring the press and trying to “hide his failures.” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that Mr. Trump wanted to “control the flow of information and silence media that might hold them accountable.”
“We will not allow Trump to undermine the First Amendment, the Constitution and our democracy,” Mr. Sanders said on social media. “We will not accept authoritarianism.”
High-ranking Republicans and members of the Trump administration mostly remained quiet on Saturday. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has tried to restrict reporters’ access to the Pentagon, said he “fully supports” a ban on some outlets that he and Mr. Trump have labeled “fake news” for negative coverage.
“They endangered our troops with false stories, leaks, and trafficked in fiction and lies about the President,” Mr. Hegseth said, without providing examples or evidence.
Benny Johnson, a right-wing podcaster, also celebrated the decision to block certain outlets from the White House and pointed out that Mr. Trump had been banned from social media platforms after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
“No one is infringing on their ability to do reporting,” Mr. Johnson said in a social media post.
The campaign of former Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican running with Mr. Trump’s backing for a competitive Senate seat in Michigan, appeared to distance itself from the president’s decision.
Mr. Rogers “held a press conference just this morning with invites out to each of those outlets,” Alyssa Brouillet, a spokeswoman for his campaign, said in a statement. “That tells you where he stands.”
Meghan McCain, a conservative commentator, was more explicit.
“Unpopular opinion in my parts, but it’s insane and a very slippery slope to kick media outlets you don’t like out of the White House,” Ms. McCain said.
Olivia Diaz and Taylor Robinson contributed reporting.
