The Trump administration is trying to justify banning reporters from the White House, and it isn’t going well.
The administration lost in court when it tried to ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. The White House has responded with a series of petty moves that have included dragging its feet when it comes to restoring access, bans from state dinners, and banning CNN from Air Force One on Saturday.
On Sunday, Trump’s criminal defense lawyer turned attorney general Todd Blanche tried to defend the media ban on ABC’s This Week.
Martha Raddatz asked Blanche:
You clearly think you had a strong case, but the temporary restraining order was granted. The judge was skeptical of the argument the department made in court filings to defend this ban on the grounds of national security.
He wrote, “For one thing, nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns. Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was banning plaintiffs from the White House. Instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of plaintiffs’ reporting.”
The president said nothing about national security when he announced this ban, and clearly, you are very interested in the fact of what the press says and how they say it.
Blanche tried to repeat the Trump line, and things went downhill fast.
