Blanche claims Trump ‘hasn’t denied access’ to White House reporters
Attorney General Todd Blanche said on ABC’s This Week that President Trump did not deny reporters access to the White House, after the administration revoked press credentials for journalists from CNN, Politico and MSNBC. A federal judge subsequently ordered the outlets’ credentials restored, finding the ban likely violated their due process rights.
Why It Matters
The dispute raises immediate constitutional and administrative questions about journalistic access to the executive branch and the scope of the president’s authority to restrict press privileges — issues that a federal judge has already begun to adjudicate. The Justice Department framed restrictions as tied to national security and the discretionary nature of access, a rationale with implications for future media-government relations and legal challenges.
Key Facts
- Who spoke: Attorney General Todd Blanche
- Where he spoke: ABC News’s This Week (interview with Martha Raddatz)
- Action by White House: Press credentials for reporters from CNN, Politico and MSNBC were confiscated and those outlets were banned from White House grounds
- Law enforcement involvement: Secret Service confiscated the reporters’ passes
- Court ruling: U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered immediate restoration of the outlets’ press credentials and said the ban likely violated due process rights (Judge Kelly is a Trump nominee)
Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the administration’s handling of credentialed reporters on Sunday, saying President Trump “hasn’t denied access” to the White House even after passes for journalists from CNN, Politico and MSNBC were taken and the outlets were barred from the grounds. Blanche told ABC’s Martha Raddatz that the decision reflected longstanding complaints about what he described as one-sided and inaccurate media coverage. Blanche emphasized that access to White House facilities is a privilege and argued the president was reacting to repeated, allegedly inaccurate reporting. He also told Raddatz the administration views certain persistent misinformation as potentially rising to a national security concern, and said the Justice Department presented that position in court. Last week a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, ordered the immediate restoration of the three outlets’ credentials after they sued the administration. Kelly found the ban likely violated the reporters’ constitutional due process rights. Despite that ruling, Blanche said the president retained the authority to bar specific reporters from joining the White House press pool on Air Force One. The administration’s framing of the dispute has echoed broader legal arguments it has made in other cases, asserting that coverage of White House activities is a privilege and that officials may consider journalists’ viewpoints when granting access. President Trump had earlier characterized the banned outlets on Truth Social as “Fake News” and linked the restrictions at times to national security concerns.
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