October 1, 2026
NEW YORK (AP) — CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump’s administration days after they were barred from covering the White House, calling the selective ban an illegal action and “a blatant violation” of the First Amendment.
The Constitution, the banned news outlets said in their lawsuit, “does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”
The three outlets filed the joint lawsuit two days after their reporters were blocked from the White House. The reporters' entry badges were disabled on Saturday, a day after Trump announced he was barring the outlets because of reporting he found to be “fake news.”
On Monday morning, the banned TV networks were reporting from an intersection just outside the White House complex. CNN, meanwhile, was removed from its pool duties, which are shared by the five major networks. It had been scheduled to cover the president's trip to New York for the U.N. General Assembly. In an email to members, the TV pool wrote that there would be no replacement coverage following the White House actions.
“Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” said the email, seen by The Associated Press. “This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place."
CNN's chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, explained on air that this meant: “When the president does anything today, there will be no TV camera with the president that is broadcasting and sharing this footage" to the viewing public.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. But on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote Monday morning that he “cherished” what he called a free press.
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish,” the president said in his post. “It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
On Saturday, White House reporters from the two cable networks — Betsy Klein of CNN and Akayla Gardner of MS NOW — went live to report they’d been turned away, their press badges deactivated, when arriving for their jobs at the White House. Soon after, Politico said its White House reporter Cheyenne Haslett was also denied entry and had her badge confiscated.
All three organizations that were banned covered the White House's actions extensively during the weekend.
The move follows the president’s decision last year to bar AP reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One and other events. The AP filed suit, and the case is ongoing.
Share with others
