CNN said the Trump administration denied one of its journalists access to cover arrivals for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state dinner Thursday despite a court order restoring the network’s White House access.
Senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes emphasized that the arrivals were not a press pool event. News organizations had instead submitted names in advance for credentials to send their own representatives, she said.
“This was a pre-credentialed media event before the state dinner,” Holmes told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We submitted our credentials, or our names for credentials, last night.”
CNN planned to send an editorial representative without a camera, the same practice the other television networks adopted in solidarity after the White House removed the network from the rotating press pool.
But Holmes said Thursday that White House officials told CNN at the entrance that it could send only camera and audio personnel — not a correspondent or producer.
“They again said that we were specifically denied access and that they were not letting in the CNN editorial presence,” Holmes reported.
Earlier in the day, Trump bashed CNN and MS NOW for not covering his state dinner, which he described as a "made for Television (sic)" event. Holmes said CNN couldn't cover the arrival because of Trump's media ban.
This happened on the same day that a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate the press badges of networks that were turned away in a 14-day temporary restraining order.
Tapper closed the breaking news report with a blunt assessment of the White House’s actions.
“Yet another egregious violation of the First Amendment and the judge’s order,” he said.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett moments later pushed back after Trump accused the network in a Truth Social post earlier in the day of refusing to cover what he called a “magnificent” event “made for television.”
“When the president of the United States posts something like that about us, it’s important to be clear on what really happened,” Burnett said. “CNN did not refuse to cover the event."
“We, like MS NOW and Politico, were denied access to the White House grounds,” she added.