White House removes CNN from Trump trip days after judge restored access

Networks paused TV pool once this week after CNN’s earlier exclusion

The White House’s move to exclude CNN from President Trump’s planned Saturday trip to Tennessee marks the second time in less than a week the network has been left off a scheduled rotation in the TV press pool — coming days after a federal judge ordered the administration to temporarily restore press access for CNN and two other outlets.

CNN said it was pulled from the trip, on which Trump was scheduled to fly aboard Air Force One to Tennessee to watch a college-football game. A scheduling email from the White House Friday night did not list a primary TV pool representative, according to the network. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The TV pool is an arrangement in which the major broadcast and cable outlets — ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News — rotate coverage of the president when he travels or when events are held in spaces that are too small to accommodate the general press corps.

The earlier removal of CNN came last weekend, when the administration dropped the network from a planned trip to New York, where Trump was addressing the United Nations General Assembly. The other major networks banded together and suspended the television-pool rotation Monday after CNN was removed from the New York assignment. The pool resumed coverage on Friday, the day before the Tennessee trip was scheduled to begin. CBS sent feeds of Trump greeting and drinking tea with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and CNN covered an event with Trump, Xi and their wives at the National Archives.

The current dispute traces to a Sept. 18 social-media post in which Trump said he planned to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. Trump said he was “sick of” what he referred to as “fiction and lies” in the three outlets’ coverage. The following day, journalists from the three news organizations were turned away from the White House.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the administration, alleging violations of their free speech and due process rights. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington, D.C. ordered the White House on Thursday to temporarily restore access for the three outlets. Kelly said the removal of reporters’ press badges was likely done without “constitutionally adequate due process.” The temporary restraining order is in place for 14 days while Kelly decides whether to extend it for the duration of the litigation.

The three outlets confirmed around midday Thursday that their reporters had regained access to the White House, after some were denied entry earlier that morning.

It wasn’t immediately clear what impact CNN’s removal from the Tennessee trip might have on the TV pool’s operation.