hasn't learned his lesson yet!
BREAKING: PICKING A FIGHT! Trump White House BARS CNN from Air Force One – replaces it with MAGA-friendly network just TWO DAYS after judge ordered CNN’s White House access restored!
Apparently the White House either learned absolutely nothing or is picking a fight with the justice system.
CNN was scheduled to take its turn Saturday in the five-network television pool traveling aboard Air Force One as Trump headed to Knoxville, Tennessee.
Instead, the White House blocked CNN from the flight – and handed its seat to conservative Real America’s Voice News, which isn’t even a member of the rotating network pool.
The move comes just two days after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily struck down Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House grounds.
Kelly said the administration had failed to provide factual support for its claim that the outlets’ reporting posed a national-security threat.
The judge’s order specifically concerned White House access and did not directly address Air Force One or pool assignments. But CNN and the other outlets believe the ruling covers pool access as well.
And this isn’t some CNN perk. The television pool exists so one network at a time can travel with the president and provide video to the rest of the press corps. When Trump originally banned CNN, the other four members – ABC, CBS, NBC and even Fox News – stopped participating in solidarity.
The pool finally resumed Friday.
Then CNN’s turn came up Saturday – and suddenly Trump’s White House decided the rotation didn’t count any more.
Trump himself provided a pretty revealing explanation for his hostility Saturday morning, raging (again) that CNN and MS NOW are “FAKE NEWS” and complaining that almost all of their coverage of him is negative.
A free press doesn’t exist to give presidents the coverage they want. And a press pool isn’t supposed to become a presidential rewards program where friendly outlets get the good seats and critical ones get left on the tarmac.
Trump doesn’t get to choose which journalists Americans are allowed to hear from simply because he doesn’t like what they say.
