White House badges belonging to reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico stopped working Saturday morning, one day after Trump announced he was banning all three outlets from the White House.
Trump made the announcement Friday on Truth Social, saying the outlets were banned because of their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS.” Later that day in the Oval Office, he told reporters he did not like how the three outlets covered him.
By Saturday morning, the ban had moved from a social media post to the security gate.
MS NOW White House reporter Akayla Gardner was the first to report it on air. MS NOW is the new name of the network formerly known as MSNBC. Gardner said she made it through the first two gates with no problem. When she scanned her badge to enter the grounds outside the West Wing, it beeped, and an officer asked her to hand it over. “He said that it was disabled,” Gardner said. When she asked why, the officer told her the decision was above him.
The shutoff of White House badges was not even across the board. An MS NOW photographer’s badge was also disabled, but an MS NOW producer scanned in without any issue. Nobody explained why one badge still worked while the others did not.
About an hour later, CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein described the same experience live on CNN. A security officer she has known for years told her the badge had been deactivated. She asked for an explanation. He said he had no further information and sent her to the White House Press Office. “We can do our job anywhere,” Klein said.
Politico was next. Editor in chief Jonathan Greenberger told his newsroom that White House reporter Cheyenne Haslett tried to enter the complex, and the Secret Service turned her away and confiscated her pass.
The White House badges at the center of this are called hard passes. A hard pass is a credential the White House gives to reporters who cover it regularly, so they can come and go from the briefing room and press areas without being cleared every single visit. Without one, a reporter can still cover the White House from outside the gates, but they cannot walk into the briefing room and ask questions in person.
All three outlets say the ban violates the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press. CNN said its reporting on the government will continue no matter what attempts are made to restrict access, and called the ban an illegal attack on a constitutional right. An MS NOW spokesperson said the White House “belongs to the American people.” Greenberger said Politico will “vigorously defend our First Amendment rights.”
Press freedom advocates are backing the outlets. Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called the ban flatly unconstitutional. His argument is simple. Once the White House decides to let journalists in, it cannot keep specific ones out because it does not like what they report. The legal term for that is viewpoint discrimination, and Brown said courts would strike this ban down quickly if it is challenged.
As of Saturday, none of the three outlets had filed a lawsuit, though all of them have signaled that legal action could be coming. The White House had not publicly explained why the White House badges were shut off at the gate, or why some MS NOW staff got in while others did not.
This is not the first time the Trump White House has cut off a news outlet over its coverage. Last year, Trump barred Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One and other events after the AP declined to fully adopt his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” The AP sued, and that case is still ongoing.
