Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday forcefully defended the Trump administration's restrictions on several news organizations, arguing that certain media coverage can become a national security issue as the White House remains embroiled in a legal battle over press access. Speaking on ABC's This Week, Blanche backed President Donald Trump's decision to bar CNN from traveling aboard Air Force One for a trip to Tennessee Saturday and reiterated the administration's position that access to the White House is not guaranteed. "It is a privilege to be in the White House for anybody," Blanche told co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Later in the interview, he added: "It is the people's house. It is a privilege, not a right, to be there." The comments come days after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily blocked the administration from enforcing its ban on CNN, Politico and MS NOW while their lawsuit proceeds.
The three outlets argue the restrictions violate the First Amendment and amount to retaliation for unfavorable coverage. Newsweek reached out to the White House and the Justice Department for comments on Sunday. Raddatz pressed Blanche repeatedly on the administration's decision to exclude CNN, which had been scheduled to serve as the rotating television pool network during Trump's Tennessee trip.
"The president has every right to decide who gets to fly on his plane," Blanche said, referring to Air Force One. When Raddatz noted that Kelly had questioned the administration's national security rationale for the restrictions, Blanche doubled down. "What they say is exactly the issue when it comes to national security," he said.
Blanche later argued that inaccurate reporting can harm U.S. interests abroad. "What we expect, and it is for the protection of our country, so that when foreign leaders, when foreign governments, when citizens that are around the world hear what's happening in the administration, that it happens to be accurate," he said. The attorney general also claimed that "the complete misinformation and the inaccuracy and the one-sided news out of certain organizations does become a national security issue." Those comments touched on an issue central to the administration's ongoing court fight over the restrictions.
In his order, Kelly wrote that "nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs' hard passes was motivated by national security concerns" and noted that Trump had instead focused on the outlets' allegedly negative and inaccurate coverage when announcing the restrictions. He also said the court was "skeptical" that safeguarding national security was the administration's actual motivation for revoking the credentials. Kelly further wrote that the administration had offered little evidence that revoking the outlets' credentials would protect national security, saying the record lacked factual support for that claim.
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