The White House faced mounting accusations Saturday that it had violated the First Amendment after barring journalists from MS NOW, CNN and Politico from its grounds and confiscating their press passes.
The three news organizations condemned the restrictions, while the White House Correspondents’ Association called for reporters’ access to be restored. Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, told NBC News that the move was “pretty clearly unconstitutional” and predicted that a potential legal challenge would succeed.
The restrictions put into effect a ban President Donald Trump announced Friday against the three outlets over what he called their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS.” Trump also warned that “other outlets” would face similar action but did not identify them.
On Saturday morning, MS NOW reporter Akayla Gardner, CNN reporter Betsy Klein and Politico reporter Cheyenne Haslett arrived for work at the White House and were denied entry. All three had their credentials confiscated or disabled.
“MS NOW intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalists in our democracy,” the network said.
CNN called the ban “an illegal assault” on its constitutional rights, while Politico said it would “vigorously defend” its journalists and its First Amendment rights.
Access denied
Gardner said her badge did not work when she arrived at the White House on Saturday.
“The officer asked me to hand over my badge,” Gardner said on air. “He said that it was disabled. I asked why I was not able to get inside. He said it was above him.”
An MS NOW photographer was also denied access, Gardner said, while one of the network’s producers was allowed onto the White House grounds. It was not immediately clear why their access differed.
“The White House belongs to the American people and the decisions made inside are funded by our tax dollars,” MS NOW said in a statement posted on X.
Klein spent about a minute inside the security kiosk before emerging without her credential, which she said had been confiscated.
CNN confirmed Saturday that its journalists were denied access.
“We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do our reporting without hinderance or interference from the government and this ban is an illegal assault on this fundamental right,” the outlet said in a statement posted on X.
“We will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account, and we will continue to report on the actions and processes of this administration without fear or favor,” the statement added.
Haslett went inside the security kiosk briefly before exiting after being denied access to the White House grounds.
Politico’s editor-in-chief, Jonathan Greenberger, sent a newsroomwide email saying Haslett had her pass confiscated by the Secret Service.
“We stand by her and all reporters here covering the White House. As we said yesterday, we will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights,” Greenberger said, according to a post by Politico’s communications team on X.
Inside the White House, the workspaces typically used by CNN and MS NOW journalists sat empty Saturday.
A senior White House official defended Trump’s ban to NBC News on Saturday, saying, “As the President said, for far too long Fake News outlets have been peddling lies about him and his Administration. And that is a great disservice to the American people and tears at the fabric of our Democracy.”
A second senior White House official acknowledged that many of Trump’s aides, including a number working in the press office, did not know that he was planning to enact this ban. The official still tried to defend the move, telling NBC News, “Nobody close to the President was surprised at his action to hold the fake news accountable.”
Earlier in the day, of the multiple, high-level current and former White House staff members who spoke to NBC News, none said they were aware ahead of time of Trump’s plan to ban three major news organizations from White House grounds.
CNN and MS NOW continued coverage after their journalists’ access was revoked in the morning, doing live hits from the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street in Washington, across the street from where the press usually enters the White House.
The White House declined to comment further Saturday, referring NBC News to Trump’s previous comments.
In a Truth Social post Friday afternoon, Trump said media outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States.”
Trump also warned “other outlets” would “follow” but did not specify which ones.
Trump also claimed that Politico received “a illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government.”
Politico’s press team said in a post on X Friday that Trump’s claims that Politico “received government subsidies are false and have been thoroughly debunked.”
“POLITICO will continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones. We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them,” the post said.
Trump addressed the bans in the Oval Office on Friday, saying that the new policy was the result of “cumulative stories over the last few years.” A White House spokesperson referred NBC News to the president’s spoken comments.
The move has drawn broad criticism.
During a Friday speaking engagement at Colgate University from which NBC News obtained audio, former President Barack Obama said: “I’m trying to think what would have happened if I had said, ‘You know what? Fox News, you’re out of here.’ It’s unimaginable.”
He added that if a certain pocket of the country agrees with the proposed restriction, “we have not developed the kind of understanding of what democracy requires” and that people have to get to work to shore up that understanding.
In a special report on Saturday evening, MS NOW anchor Peter Alexander said the ban “is not normal.”
“This is not business as usual. What’s happening right now is different. The latest threat against our cherished freedoms, protected by the U.S. Constitution,” Alexander said.
Alexander later asked Gabe Rottman, vice president of policy for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, whether Trump’s ban was legal.
“In a word, no,” Rottman said, calling the ban a clear violation of the First Amendment. “The fact that the White House would put the affected news organizations to the task of having to go to court and vindicate their rights, you know that in and of itself is an effort to intimidate the press writ large.”
White House Correspondents’ Association President Jacqui Heinrich described the move as a constitutional violation in a statement Friday.
“The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference,” Heinrich said in a statement. “That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.”
“The WHCA stands in defense of our colleagues at CNN, MS NOW, and Politico who are being singled out for doing their jobs,” she added.
In another statement released after the reporters were barred from the White House, Heinrich said the move violated the First Amendment.
“The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future,” Heinrich wrote in a WHCA statement. “The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favorably.”
Heinrich added that courts have previously ruled the White House cannot deny access to journalists arbitrarily based on the content of their reporting.
“The WHCA calls on the administration to immediately restore our colleagues’ access,” Heinrich added.
New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander also pushed back on the move.
“The courts have twice found that the Trump administration violated the Constitution by suspending reporters’ White House press passes,” Stadtlander said. “The Times stands in support of the news organizations being unfairly targeted by the president.”
A ‘broader pattern’
Jaffer, the First Amendment expert, told NBC News that the move was “representative of a broader pattern” with the Trump administration, citing the president’s past attempts to expel The Associated Press from the White House press pool and the Defense Department limiting journalists’ access to the Pentagon.
“I see this latest move as part of that same pattern, which I think is an effort by President Trump to intimidate the press and to deter media outlets from reporting critically about his policies and decisions,” Jaffer said.
He called the move an attack on the “public’s right to independent information about government.”
“President Trump presents it as retaliation against these particular news organizations, but it’s really a move against the public’s right to know, and that’s the way that we should be thinking about it,” Jaffer said.
The ban is the latest in Trump’s ongoing efforts to punish news organizations and broadcasters for their coverage. Shortly after taking office, Trump banned The Associated Press from the Oval Office, Air Force One and some events after it declined to acknowledge his effort to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The AP filed suit, and the case is ongoing.
The AP’s chief communications officer, Lauren Easton, said in a statement Saturday that the publication stands “with the news organizations who have had their access restricted.”
“No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use,” Easton wrote.
Trump has also sued outlets including the BBC, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, claiming defamation. The suits against the Times and the Journal were dismissed but have since been refiled. The BBC has filed for dismissal.
