The White House defended banning a CNN correspondent from covering an open press event in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, pointing to the reporter’s alleged behavior when she asked President Trump questions in the Oval Office earlier in the day.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins claims that White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and Bill Shine, deputy chief of staff for communications, told her Wednesday that she was no longer invited to attend a press event with Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, after she asked Trump questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump’s former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump did not answer her questions.
“At the conclusion of a press event in the Oval Office a reporter shouted questions and refused to leave despite repeatedly being asked to do so. Subsequently, our staff informed her she was not welcome to participate in the next event, but made clear that any other journalist from her network could attend,” Sanders said in a statement.
“She said it didn’t matter to her because she hadn’t planned to be there anyway. To be clear, we support a free press and ask that everyone be respectful of the presidency and guests at the White House,” the statement continued.
The White House version of what happened does not completely match up with what Collins said happened.
“They said, ‘You are disinvited from the press availability in the Rose Garden today,'” Collins told CNN, who was first to report the incident. “They said that the questions I asked were inappropriate for that venue. And they said I was shouting.”
“You’re banning me from an event because you didn’t like the questions I asked,” Collins said she responded. Collins said Shine and Sanders then told her, “We’re not banning your network. Your photographers can still come. Your producers can still come. But you are not invited to the Rose Garden today.”
The network characterized the White House’s action as a retaliation in their official response.
“Just because the White House is uncomfortable with a question regarding the news of the day doesn’t mean the question isn’t relevant and shouldn’t be asked,” the statement said. “This decision to bar a member of the press is retaliatory in nature and not indicative of an open and free press. We demand better.”
