CNN’s White House Access Has Been Restored, and Their Meltdown Was for Nothing

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CNN was unhappy yesterday with U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly’s refusal to grant CNN, MSNBC, and Politico’s motion to reinstate their access to the White House. On September 18, President Trump kicked these outlets off campus, sparking another First Amendment froth fest from the liberal media. Kelly is likely to issue a ruling soon; as early as today wouldn’t shock me, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he says the White House needs to let them back in. Still, a few days after they were banished, they were still covering the White House from across the street, and no federal agents disappeared any reporters, so please spare us the Gestapo scenarios here. 

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You people got the belt for your trash reporting, and the process is the punishment. Both sides should understand that it doesn’t matter if words say you can’t do something. There is a process, and it could take some time — so take it for a spin. The network’s reaction when this news broke yesterday afternoon was priceless:

Kristin Davison took a blowtorch to these reporters as well:

Well, you know, I think that this President has probably been one of the most effective in terms of working the press and using it to his advantage. So, we’re 36 minutes into this program, and we haven’t mentioned the American people once. What does this do to them? We are sitting here in a D.C. bubble saying the poor press, we can’t go in, and that is why we talk about trust and how White Houses trust press corps is. The American people don’t trust the press. And why is that? Because we’ve just spent 40 minutes talking about how bad the President is and how, you know, this is a — we are the victims, and that can’t be the case. We have to go broaden that, and I think, to your point, we’re talking about how this could be a negative, that we’re not capturing the arrival of the Chinese president today. That might be a benefit in some of these places, right? If you’re running for office in the Midwest or in some of these places, you might be okay. That there’s not a glowing image of President Trump and President Xi today. So, there is — I do believe that we have to look a step beyond now. I don’t know the legal part of it. Fortunately, I didn’t go to law school, but thinking through — that will all work itself out. To your — to your point, your arguments, I’m talking about the political part of it and the fact that right now, yes, the approval rating is down. The press approval rating and trust is even worse. And why is that? Because sometimes we forget the connectivity there, and that is what Trump has been so effective at doing. We’ve now spent the entire time talking about this and not about his approval rating, not about gas prices, not about diesel, not about the election.”

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Of course, host Kasie Hunt disagreed. 

UPDATE: Around 1:30 AM this morning, the judge ruled that the networks’ access to the White House must be restored. 

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