White House removes CNN from press pool for second time in a week

For a second time in a week, the White House has unilaterally removed CNN from its assignment as the primary television pool representative covering Donald Trump. CNN was excluded on Saturday from pool duty aboard Air Force One, despite a district judge’s ruling – two days earlier – overturning the White House’s ban on the network and two other media organizations. But on Sunday, in what appeared to be a thawing of tensions, the White House published a pool assignment list that listed CNN as in-town pooler for Thursday’s activities, with the conservative network Real America’s Voice serving as secondary pooler.

Then, on Wednesday night, the White House abruptly removed CNN from pool duty for the following day, leaving Real America’s Voice as the only pooler as the president travels to Texas and Oklahoma. The country’s largest broadcast and cable television news networks have not aired Real America’s Voice footage, though the network has widely broadcast its availability. The five networks that serve in the primary television pool have taken it day by day since the White House originally banned CNN on 18 September, initially suspending operation before tentatively kicking back into action this past Friday.

As they did on Saturday, none of the other four networks will take CNN’s place on Thursday, meaning there will be no primary pool footage, though networks could cover individual parts of his trip. CNN did not comment on the network’s exclusion on Thursday. A White House official sent a statement touting Trump’s accessibility and referring to television networks as “performative and dishonest”.

Earlier this week, lawyers for CNN, MS Now and Politico – the three outlets targeted by Trump’s ban – formally asked a judge to extend his ruling overturning the White House ban for a period of 14 days. The judge in the case will soon hold a hearing to weigh arguments from both sides about whether the networks should be granted a preliminary injunction that would block the ban until the network’s 21 September lawsuit against the White House plays out.