The White House again excluded CNN from its presidential press pool Thursday, leaving reporters without television pool coverage as the network continues its legal fight with the Trump administration over press access.
CNN was scheduled to serve as Thursday’s primary television pool outlet but was left off the White House’s daily schedule.
“Be advised that there is no TV pool today because it is CNN’s turn and the president is mad at them,” HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte wrote in his Thursday morning pool report.
The television pool consists of ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC News, which rotate responsibility for providing footage of presidential events to other news organizations. When CNN is excluded and no replacement is assigned, the broader press corps loses access to that shared television coverage.
Thursday’s move comes just over a week after CNN, MS NOW and Politico expanded their lawsuit against the administration, alleging that the White House has continued excluding them from presidential press pools despite an Oct. 13 court order restoring their credentials.
In their amended complaint filed Oct. 28, the outlets accused the administration of retaliating against them over their reporting. CNN said it had been excluded from six scheduled Air Force One pool assignments since Trump’s Sept. 18 ban, while Politico reported being blocked from two. MS NOW said it had not participated in the secondary television pool since the ban took effect.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly found that the outlets were likely to succeed on their First Amendment and due process claims when he ordered their credentials restored. But that ruling did not settle whether the White House must include them in presidential press pools, which remains at the center of the dispute.
The White House has rejected the outlets’ allegations. In a statement to TheWrap last week, an administration official said the news organizations had no right to demand access to the Oval Office and reiterated the White House’s intention to challenge the earlier court ruling. The administration appealed Kelly’s decision on Oct. 14.