Attorney General Todd Blanche snapped at ABC News’ Martha Raddatz Sunday after being pressed on President Donald Trump’s latest attack on the media that has been described as “flatly unconstitutional."
Trump banned three major outlets from the White House earlier this month after accusing them of reporting “fake news,” a decision that legal experts argued to be a blatant violation of the First Amendment. Last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s media ban, only for the Trump administration to continue barring the outlets from the White House.
The Justice Department has argued that the three media outlets’ reporting has jeopardized national security, and on Sunday, Blanche was asked to provide specifics.
“What [the media outlets] say is exactly the issue when it comes to national security,” Blanche told Raddatz.
Raddatz then bluntly asked Blanche to provide an example of how the media outlets’ reporting had jeopardized or threatened national security — a question Blanche sidestepped by interpreting it to be referencing general inaccurate reporting.
“I’m sorry, give you an example of when CNN doesn’t report accurately? You cannot be asking me that!” Blanche said.
“At some point, the complete misinformation and the inaccuracy and the one-sided news out of certain organizations does become a national security issue, and it’s not right for the people of the United States to have to put up with it!”
In an apparent attempt to gain insight on how the Trump administration may address the supposed national security threats from media outlets’ reporting, Raddatz asked how the matter might be handled.
“So are you saying you’re going to screen people before they get on a flight coming to the White House?” Raddatz asked.
Blanche was not pleased with Raddatz’s question.
“I did not say that!” Blanche snapped. “You don’t get to put words in my mouth, that’s not the way it works! I didn’t say that. You said I said something that I didn’t say!”
Wow -- a haggard-sounded Blanche crashes and burns on ABC while trying to defend Trump's ban on the free press
RADDATZ: The president said nothing about national security when he announced this ban, and clearly you're very interested in what the press says and how they say it… pic.twitter.com/kaXC8nw7z2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 27, 2026