White House press director Karoline Leavitt defended the White House decision on Tuesday, from a pool of reporters allowed to cover executive orders signed by the Associated Press with President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk banned out.
“We reserve the right to decide who will go to the oval office,” Levitt said in a briefing with a reporter on Wednesday, when he called it “the privilege of covering the White House.” He spoke when asked about it.
The Associated Press on Tuesday said it was prevented from covering two White House events by refusing to “adjust President Trump's executive order, which renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and its editorial standards.” .
Leavitt was pressed for the decision Wednesday by CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins, and would be facing the White House stance on the Associated Press as essentially retaliatory or against Trump's first First Amendment privilege. I asked if it should be considered.
“If we feel that lies are being held down by the outlets in this room, we will hold those lies accountable,” the spokesperson replied. “And the fact that the waters off the coast of Louisiana are called the U.S. Gulf, and I don't know why news outlets don't want to call it, but that's the case.”
After Trump moved to rename the waters, the AP updated its policy of referring to the Gulf of Mexico, providing style guides to many other news outlets around the country. A new name chosen by Trump. ”
News of Wire Services, which is prohibited from certain White House events, sparked a rapid pushback from the press freedom group and the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA).
“The White House cannot decide how news organizations report news, and should not punish work journalists because they are unhappy with the editor's decision,” the WHCA said in a statement. Masu. “The administration's move to ban reporters from the Associated Press from official events opened from today's news coverage is unacceptable.”
