A Washington, D.C., insider offered an explanation for President Donald Trump's ban on three news outlets from the White House.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico have notified the 80-year-old president they're filing a lawsuit after their reporters were blocked from the White House on Saturday after Trump said he would ban them over what he called "fake news," and Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei told "CNN This Morning" what he believes set off the confrontation.
"The move, I think, issmall, silly and stupid, right?" VandeHei sid. "It's small in that it's notgoing to make a damn bit ofdifference in terms of howpeople do their coverage. It'sstupid in that I don't thinkit's going to hold up in court, and I think eventually you'regoing to have everyone justdoing their job the way theyshould do it."
"I hate theprecedent of it, and the reasonthat it's happening is thepresident feels the walls arecaving in," he added. "It was a terribleweek for him last week. Everyonearound him knows it."
Host Audie Cornish was intrigued, and she asked him to elaborate.
"Because you're increasingthe Fed [interest] rate, you're having thecourts tell you you can't dothings that you want to do, youhave a Republican congresswomanshooting an ad basically sayingwhat Democrats have been sayingabout how he's handlingimmigration," VandeHei replied. "Like, that's bad. Gas priceshit a new high, diesel hits anew high, inflation is high.Poll numbers are low,Republicans are in the tank, generics are bad."
"Even the bubble he lives in,that's a really bad bubble," VandeHei added. "Inevery person that we talk toaround him says you get theworst version of President Trumpwhen he feels powerless and hefeels powerless, and it's kindof a taste of what's to comebecause he is a lame-duckpresident, and he has defiedpolitical gravity in ways we'venot seen other presidents. Butpolitical gravity is real. Hehas two plus years left inoffice. Republicans are lookingat those polls, they're thinkingabout survival. The mediaunderstands they're bigger thanone presidency – it's going tolast forever. The courtsunderstand that they're goingto be judged based on the workthat they do inside thecourtroom, not whether thepresident is upset with theruling."